audiobook Chancellorsville’s Forgotten Front: The Battles of Second Fredericksburg and Salem Church; May 3; 1863 by Chris Mackowski; Kristopher D. White in History

Description

Louis Bamberger (1855–1944) was the epitome of the merchant prince as public benefactor. Born in Baltimore; this son of German immigrants built his business—the great; glamorous L. Bamberger Co. department store in Newark; N.J.—into the sixth-largest department store in the country. A multimillionaire by middle age; he joined the elite circle of German Jews who owned Macy’s; Bloomingdale’s; and Filene’s. Despite his vast wealth and local prominence; Bamberger was a reclusive figure who shunned the limelight; left no business records; and kept no diaries. He remained a bachelor and kept his private life and the rationale for his business decisions to himself.Yet his achievements are manifold. He was a merchandising genius whose innovations; including newspaper and radio ads and brilliant use of window and in-store displays; established the culture of consumption in twentieth-century America. His generous giving; both within the Jewish community and beyond it; created institutions that still stand today: the Newark YM-YWHA; Beth Israel Hospital; and the Newark Museum. Toward the end of his career; he financed and directed the creation of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton; which led to a friendship with Albert Einstein.Despite his significance as business innovator and philanthropist; historians of the great department stores have paid scant attention to Bamberger. This full-length biography will interest historians as well as general readers of Jewish history nationally; New Jerseyans fascinated by local history; and the Newarkers for whom Bamberger’s was a beloved local institution.