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THE FINANCIAL TIMES BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
This absorbing collective biography of the genius Nobel family reveals how the Nobels' business and personal lives were fundamentally intertwined with the histories of Sweden and Russia, as well as the economic and entrepreneurial development of Europe in the long 19th century.
The name Nobel is mainly associated with the Nobel prize. However, Alfred Nobel was only one of a family of conspicuously gifted individuals. The Nobels, who moved from Sweden to Russia in the 1830s, ran one of Russia's biggest machine factories and founded the Russian oil industry. Using thousands of Nobel family letters and other documents shared here for the first time, Bengt Jangfeldt provides a fascinating and authoritative multi-generational chronicle charting the family exploits. The author describes how the father, Immanuel Nobel, a polymath architect, inventor, and engineer set the family on a path to financial success amidst a backdrop of imperial Russian industrial growth. He tells the story of how Immanuel's sons, Robert and Ludvig, and his grandson, Emanuel, developed the family business into a powerful industrial empire with a progressive agenda in the fields of worker's welfare, profit-sharing and charity. When the Revolution struck in 1917, the family's industrial empire as well as their huge personal wealth were swept away in one go. As a result they had to flee the country where they had been active for 80 years and return to Sweden.
During a time of immense change in Russia and right across Europe, the story of the Nobels stands out as one of both brilliance and resilience, with family firmly at its heart.
Published | Sep 21 2023 |
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Format | Hardback |
Edition | 1st |
Extent | 424 |
ISBN | 9781350348912 |
Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
Illustrations | 88 bw illus and 10 colour illus |
Dimensions | 9 x 6 inches |
Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
This eloquent book … reads like an official history … [A] punchy historical story [is] at the heart of this very readable tale - the translation is superb -it is the incidental details, so eloquently expounded by Swedish scholar and Russia expert Bengt Jangfeldt, that are riveting.
Lesley Chamberlain, Financial Times
A meticulously researched and factfilled tome, The Nobel Family provides not only a comprehensive history of an individual dynasty but also a wide-ranging analysis of industrial enterprise in Russia, Scandinavia and Germany over a period brought abruptly to a close by the Russian Revolution.
Literary Review, Patricia Fara
Informative and engaging.
John Inge, The Church Times
This gripping and deeply researched volume wonderfully tells the tale of the Nobel family, bringing new evidence and perspectives to show how their business and personal lives were intertwined with the histories of Sweden and Russia.
Steven Nafziger, Professor of Economics, Williams College, USA
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