“Founder: A Portrait of the First Rothschild and His Time” by Amos Elon is a captivating biography of Mayer Amschel Rothschild, the founder of the Rothschild banking dynasty. Born in the Frankfurt ghetto in the mid-eighteenth century, Rothschild started his career dealing in rare coins. Despite the restrictive environment of the Judengasse (the ghetto’s single street), he managed to build a successful trading and banking business. Elon vividly depicts Rothschild’s life, his relationships with influential figures like the Crown Prince Wilhelm of Kassel, and his role in financing the English war effort during the Napoleonic Wars. The book provides a richly detailed portrait of Rothschild’s times, the condition of Jews in Europe, and the emergence of Western European Jewry.
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