The Man Who Robbed the Robber Barons

by Andy Logan

A colorful account of turn-of-the-century New York scandal, by a legendary City Hall reporter and the first woman to write for THE NEW YORKER ¹s ³Talk of the Town.²

276 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2001

Reviews

[Cathy Day · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a odd little gem of a book. Someone should actually make it into a film. It's got a muckraking angle, a courtroom drama, plus lots of celebrity rich people acting badly--and getting called on it. I just spent five days looking through TOWN TOPICS, the "journal of society" edited by Col. William d'Alton Mann, and I wish this crazy example of a newspaper was more widely available. This book opens a window into Gilded Age culture, esp. the culture of celebrity and the history of society journalism.

[Paulette Hughes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw this book in a bookstore in Washington, D.C. and was intrigued since I have watched each season of the TV show The Gilded Age. I wondered if the characters in the tv show would be represented or identifiable in this book. Mrs. Astor for sure is a character in the show. The Russel’s, the main characters, have the husband as a railroad magnet. Their daughter marries an English duke. Must look this up to find any facts. The Gilded Age robber barons like the Astors are mentioned as being extorted more than once. I am always impressed with the depth of the research in books like this. The book discusses Colonel Mann and all his not-really-blackmails to anyone he thought rich enough to meet his suggestions should they rather keep their secrets secret. My favorite section of the book is chapter ten, The Gratifying Verdict, which names bunches of “the four hundred”, the social register, the A-list (during the Gilded Age.) Daddy buying a Duke from across the Atlantic, the slights by not inviting a wife to tea since the wives were the ones seemingly pulling all the social register strings. Names named. Including presidents of railroads losing their jobs because his wife made a choice that echoed disastrously for her and then her husband.