If you’re more likely to binge Bravo than PBS, pick up Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty.

Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe tell a story worthy of the Real Housewives franchise: how the Vanderbilts bankrupted an American dynasty in five generations. Gilded Age parties ran through much of the fortune, as well as pricey divorces and mansions made of marble and gold (many of which were razed in the following century to make way for skyscrapers).

Spectacular shows of wealth aside, Cooper ultimately concludes that a sickness of riches manifesting in the consumption of drugs, alcohol, and things finished off this family.