RaveThe Los Angeles Review of BooksIn this anatomy of a swindle, Starobin clearly relishes the tale he brings to life and separates the colorful victimizers from their victims, patiently evoking the lives of both in atmospheric detail, from the curious Alaskan wildlife when miners first dig into the iron-tinged sand to his antihero’s early years as a frontier sheriff. It is an able narrative that blends business and political history and ends up with a message of qualified hope: it was the American people themselves who finally put an end to the excesses of the Gilded Age, through the revelations of muckraking journalism and innovations of the Progressive era, particularly the direct election of US senators, which lessened the power of senator-making political bosses. This cautionary story is a pleasure to read.
