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Gilded Breeze

A Family Tale of Wealth and Fame.

Gilded Breeze is the story of one American family caught between the fading certainties of the Gilded Age and a new century that demanded reinvention. Through the lives of James “Jimmie” Breese Sr. and his son, Jim Breese Jr., the book traces America’s transition from a world of inherited wealth, artistic experimentation, and social privilege to one increasingly defined by engineering, innovation, and achievement.

Along the way, it moves through the bohemian salons of New York, the scandals surrounding Stanford White, the Trial of the Century, the rise of the automobile, and the dawn of aviation. Ultimately, it is a story about how people adapt, or fail to adapt, when the world that once made them successful disappears beneath them.