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A Most Wicked Conspiracy: The Last Great Swindle of the Gilded Age
Bottom of the pile
23
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
12/100Critics
35/100Scholars
Author:
Paul Starobin
Publisher:
PublicAffairs
Date:
June 30, 2020
In the feverish, money-making age of railroad barons, political machines, and gold rushes, Republican mogul "Big Alex" McKenzie defied even the era's standard for avarice. Starobin narrates McKenzie's plot to rob the gold fields and shows how it exemplified the domination of America's political and economic life by self-dealing, seemingly-untouchable party bosses in cahoots with robber barons, Senators and even Presidents.
What The Reviewers Say
If these shenanigans sound familiar, it is one of the reasons this book is important. If we do not study and remember our history, we are doomed to repeat it. What McKenzie did goes beyond mere avarice. To sate his greed, he willingly subverted the American system. This book also serves as a hopeful reminder that ultimately there are people who will stand up for what is right. As a matter of personal preference, I try to avoid books that begin with a listing of characters—and there are more than 50 characters noted here. But I needn’t have worried. The writing is fluid, the structure is logical without unnecessary diversions. Also, the events in Nome provided the final impetus for the 17th Amendment, the direct election of U.S. senators, and at least a partial decrease in the powers of the bosses..
This work of nonfiction tells a complicated story about political, financial, and legal machinations, fleshing out larger-than-life major characters such as McKenzie and Gatling gun-toting William H. Metson as well as 'foreigners' from Norway, Sweden, and Lapland who were first to find gold and the men who panned for the mineral in the 'poor man’s paradise on beach sands and believed their labor was free from the bosses of industry.
Mr. Starobin’s story is the typical Gilded Age plot of a political boss and a robber baron jointly pulling the strings of various politicians hungry for their financial support.
Both the geographical and governmental scope of this scandal complicate the narrative, but Starobin sorts out characters and keeps the drama flowing..
