She might be one of the greatest con artists of all time. Cassie Chadwick conned millions of dollars out of banks by claiming to be the illegitimate daughter of Andrew Carnegie. It was a simple but brilliant con that reflects the ethos and the high-flying greed of the Gilded Age.
Greed in the Gilded Age is a Gatsby-esque tale of mystery, money, sex, and scandal. 'Millionaire' had just entered the American lexicon and Cassie Chadwick was front page news, becoming a media sensation before mass media, even eclipsing President Roosevelt's inauguration. Using these newspaper articles, Hazelgrove tells the story of one of the ......
Best known for his many popular books about science and mathematics, the author demonstrates that his interests encompass nearly everything else as well.
Myths of Origins in the History of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Conflict
The Eve of Spain demonstrates how the telling and retelling of Spain's founding myth played a central role in the formation of that country's national identity. King Roderick, the last Visigoth king of Spain, rapes (or seduces) La Cava, the daughter of his friend and counselor, Count Julian. The count returns to Africa, gathers an army of Moors, ......
Fear and ignorance have run rampant throughout human history. This book aims to expose the roots of such mental maladies as witchcraft and its persecution, asceticism, and unbridled hedonism, the crusades and millenarianism, nazism's monumental conceit, and the tactics of McCarthyism, as well as the belief in nostrum vendors and bogus messiahs.
An inside look at the unique balance the Amish strike between tradition and the demands of the modern world. From technology to social forces, the Amish face an evolving modern world. Their facility in determining whether to accept, reject, or bargain with the options that challenge them allows for measured change that sustains their social ......
In a society of strangers, there develops what can be called crimes of mobility -- forms of criminality rare in traditional societies: bigamy, the confidence game, and blackmail, for example. What they have in common is a kind of fraudulent role-playing, which the new society makes possible.
Utilizing overlooked resources, Arrested Adolescence offers insight and nuance into the mind of Nathan Leopold, a man who committed cold-blooded murder as a teenager and then convinced the world to believe in rehabilitation that he never experienced.
The Con Man's Formula: Hope + Fear = Desperation From the Gilded Age, through WWII, America was rife with ne'er-do-wells with their never-ending search for the next Big Score. Between 1850, and 1950 lawlessness melded with ingenuity, fueled by optimism and ruthlessness: America was dangerous, and buzzing, and where opportunity came to take ......
