David Kynaston: Banker and philanthropist - A portrait of Anthony de Rothschild

In this evocative new book, historian David Kynaston tells the fascinating story of Anthony de Rothschild (1887–1961). Through access to never previously consulted diaries and letters, a three-dimensional picture emerges of a complex and thoughtful man guiding the City’s most famous merchant bank through the turbulent years between the 1920s and 1950s.

In politics he was open-minded and constructive whilst in his philanthropy, not least through his leading role in helping Jewish refugees (especially children) to leave Nazi Germany for England, he was thoughtful and generous. Austere on the surface but warm beneath, impatient equally of fools and idealogues, always searching for how he could contribute to make a better world – Anthony de Rothschild deserves, arguably more than almost anyone else in the 20th-century City, to be known properly by later generations.

Family tree 6 Preface 9 Chapter One I wish I knew my own ambition 12 Chapter Two Wastage of human life 44 Chapter Three Very heavy payments 72 Chapter Four A clear and limited objectiv 98 Chapter Five One can only hope and pray 124 Chapter Six No reason for not being an optimist 154 Endnotes 180 Index 186