New York Times Bestseller: Sweeping from the 1850s through the early 1920s, this towering family saga examines the price of ambition and power. Joseph Francis Xavier Armagh is twelve years old when he gets his first glimpse of the promised land of America through a dirty porthole in steerage on an Irish immigrant ship. His long voyage, dogged by tragedy, ends not in the great city of New York … great city of New York but in the bigoted, small town of Winfield, Pennsylvania, where his younger brother, Sean, and his infant sister, Regina, are sent to an orphanage. Joseph toils at whatever work will pay a living wage and plans for the day he can take his siblings away from St. Agnes’s Orphanage and make a home for them all.
Joseph’s journey will catapult him to the highest echelons of power and grant him entry into the most elite political circles. Even as misfortune continues to follow the Armagh family like an ancient curse, Joseph takes his revenge against the uncaring world that once took everything from him. He orchestrates his eldest son Rory’s political ascent from the offspring of an Irish immigrant to US senator. And Joseph will settle for nothing less than the pinnacle of glory: seeing his boy crowned the first Catholic president of the United States.
Spanning seventy years, Captains and the Kings, which was adapted into an eight-part television miniseries, is Taylor Caldwell’s masterpiece about nineteenth- and early twentieth-century America, and the grit, ambition, fortitude, and sheer hubris it takes for an immigrant to survive and thrive in a dynamic new land.
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What a glimpse into another time! One of my favorite authors ever!
Very good! Loved it!
LONGEST soap opera in history. Starts out well but by the end you are more than ready to be done with this book.
First read this about 30 years ago. I loved it then and when I came across it again I just had to read it. It’s a truly awesome book. Very realistic in the description of the treatment of Irish immigrants. It was also made into a mini-series which was good but of course nothing is ever as good as the book. But I do highly recommend it.
I think the weiter knows how the world/politics really works. Loved this book/story
Supposedly, loosely based on the Kennedy family. If you like family sagas this is a great one.
One of the best books I have ever read. The writing is absolutely beautiful and the places and characters come alive in every page. The story is frighteningly real and can be depressing if you actually believe you have a role in our democracy. Loved it and can’t wait to read another Taylor Caldwell book
Tedious and dated and very opinionated.
i could not put this book down. It’s a classic, about the life of an Irish immigrant, who in working to overcome his childhood and keep his promise to care for his siblings, creates another form of hardship. It shows how people can often not see past what they think is best.
A must read especially in light of today’s world!