To Marry an English Lord

<p><strong>Gilded Age American Heiresses Take on the Peerage</strong><br /><br />In 1895 nine American girls including a Vanderbilt (railroads) LaRoche (pharmaceuticals) Rogers (oil) and Whitney (New York trolleys) married peers of the British realm—among them a duke an earl three barons and a knight. It was the peak year of a social phenomenon that began in the Gilded Age after the Civil War and handed down the legacy of Anglomania preppies and the world of two television series <em>Downton  Abbey</em> and <em>The Gilded Age</em>.<br /><br />In all more than 100 American heiresses invaded Britannia and swapped dollars for titles. Filled with a wealth of historical personalities grand houses gossipy anecdotes and a feature called <em>comme il faut—</em>the very finest points of etiquette that ruled Victorian and Edwardian society—<em>To Marry an English Lord</em> is their story.</p>