The Magnificant Ambersons by Booth Tarkington

Before this was a movie it was a powerful and important novel and Booth Tarkington was a major voice of the early 20th Century. The Book tells of the story of an American Family then, and now. We meet George Amberson Minafer, last stand of a dynasty, run over and brought down by a new breed of financiers and robber barons who know no law but their own. History is all about then - and it's all about now.