The Era of Good Stealings - Hardcover

Summers, Mark Wahlgren

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 019507503X ISBN 13: 9780195075038

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1993

Synopsis

Who, thinking of Reconstruction, fails to think of corruption? The Grant administration and the Great Barbecue remain inseparable in our minds. In his first book, The Plundering Generation, Mark W. Summers dealt with corruption and the breakdown of ethics in public life from 1849 to 1861. Now in a study of the post-Civil War years, he examines the aftermath of the war, when abuses of the public trust were all the fashion, from grafting South Carolina Republicans to plundering Tammany Hall delegates. Noting the effect of corruption on national politics during the era of Reconstruction, Summers nonetheless suggests the corruption issue may have had more important consequences than the misdeeds themselves. Indeed, the very forces that impelled corruption were the ones that defined and limited the character of reform. Official rascality raised the strongest possible argument for a scaled-down, cheap government, a professional civil service, and a retreat from Reconstruction. Without whitewashing villainy or blackguarding the liberal reformers, Summers re-examines the swindles, exposes the exaggerations and the self-interested motives of the accusers, and suggests ways in which the issue itself struck heavier blows at the way Americans governed themselves than did the acts of corruption.

About this title

About the Author

Mark Wahlgren Summers, Professor of History, University of Kentucky, Lexington.

Review

"Fresh, stimulating, and vigorously done, well worth the attention of specialists in Reconstruction and US political culture."--Choice

"Mark Summers's research is so thorough, his analysis so original, and his prose so sprightly that the Era of Good Stealings becomes the book on political corruption during the Civil War and Reconstruction....This is an impressive book. Prodigious research in manuscripts, newspapers, and
government documents, a wealth of telling quotations, a wryly witty style, and a host of provocative interpretations make this a work of historical scholarship at its best."--Arkansas Historical Quarterly

"The Era of Good Stealings is much more than a study of corruption. It is an important and illuminating treatment of the politics and public values of the Gilded Age. And it is also full of marvelous insights about events and issues as well as of percipience about individuals."--Georgia
Historical Quarterly

"Wonderfully revisionist, excellently researched, spritely written, and insightful; it is superior narrative history."--Journal of Economic History

"Provides a lucid analysis of political plunder, its context, consequences, and reform responses from Appomattox through the Compromise of 1877. In the process Summers offers compelling insights into our postbellum political culture, ideology, and propaganda that make The Era of Good Stealings
a milestone in American political historiography....Required reading for every serious student of the history of the American political process."--Register of the Kentucky Historical Society

"Mark W. Summers has become this generation's reigning expert on historical political corruption, an academic Lincoln Steffens with an extraordinary command of his subject and an important message for his readers."--The Historian

"This study measures up to the high scholarly standards that characterized the author's earlier works....Summer's current book demonstrates exhaustive research, forceful prose, and an insightful discussion. It advances understanding of Reconstruction and the Grant administration."--The North
Carolina Historical Review

"It now appears safe to say that Mark Summers is the foremost authority on all varieties of political corruption in the Middle Period....He scarcely leaves a stone unturned....Summer's research is thoroughgoing, his analysis compelling and lively, and his careful point-counterpoint style is
layered with qualifications and nuances-there are few black and white hats here. His depth and perspective makes this essential reading for students of postwar political culture and public life."--Civil War History

"This is an important contribution to our understanding of post-Civil War politics and of American culture more generally."--American Historical Review

"Summers's book is a valuable addition to post-bellum political history."--The Journal of American History

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 019507503X
• ISBN 13: 9780195075038
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 408