The Sassoons: The Great Global Merchants and the Making of an Empire

I liked the history behind this family’s dynasty. It describes the opium trade and how it rose and then fell, due to restrictions and competition from China. I liked the way family cohesion and family feuds were portrayed.

This book was a fascinating history of the opium drug trade and politics of The UK, India and China for a century. Stories of great wealth, charity, religion, and world travel kept me turning the pages to the end.

The book was well written, meticulously researched and all facts sourced. I had trouble staying with it because of the level of detail that was very appropriate for a history but not so enjoyable for more casual reading. I set it aside for a time when I may be more patient as the story seems worth reading.

Historical and right on information

There aren't many people in the world who have the language skills and the knowledge of business practices that this author has. All this and more was needed to write this comprehensive book about the Sassoon family. It is largely a study of business affairs, the rise and all of their family firm, and that raises the key question about this book.During the years in which the Sassoon firm thrived the most financially, the bulk of its income came from selling opium in China. Even taking into consideration that after 1842 opium became legal in China, pushing it leaves a bad taste. Something like the Duke family and tobacco or the Sacklers and oxicontin.The author, however, makes no judgements about the opium trade, even in the conclusion of the book. While writing a polemic about the drug trade is unlikely to have produced a solid piece of history like this book, in the end the strict neutrality on the subject left me feeling uncomfortable.

The journey from poverty to the richest family in the 19th century Iraq, India, China and finally England. A riveting story and a must read.

Required reading for all who seek to build, keep, and then convey over time, a large family enterprise.All covered: the finances of the opium trade from India to China; cotton during the American Civil War; business communications before telephones or even telegraphs; the importance of the Suez Canal and shipping; extremely generous philanthropy; where the World War I poet Siegfried Sassoon fits into this sprawling family; the high costs of social climbing in London; and the end when all goes up in smoke in Red Shanghai.The author, a far distant relative of those he speaks of and a Georgetown University professor, is wise in focusing his story on a few key family members in each generation of the Sassoons (who were originally a Jewish clan from Baghdad.) Even then it was sometimes hard for me to follow all the individual and business dynamics.The book profits by a good selection of photographs and an "Afterword" that gives the author's insightful take on all that went wrong.

This is a personal family memoir about a prominent Jewish commercial family comparable to the Rothschilds. The setting begins in Syria, extends to China, India and England. The rise and eventual fall with the opium trade is a fascinating study of commerce, politics and character in an exotic and little known part of the world

Understanding how this particular House left its Architectural Legacies in India and Shanghai.