What do you think?
Rate this book
The Era of Good Stealings
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.
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.
408 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1993
About the author
Mark Wahlgren Summers
10 books9 followersMark Wahlgren Summers is Thomas D. Clark Professor of History at the University of Kentucky, Lexington.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 2, 2021
This is a great and spirited account of the corruption issue during the Reconstruction. Some of his judgements (such as that about Grant or some of the details of the alleged compromise involved in the Hayes-Tilden election, on which see Charles Calhoun's Conceiving a New Republic: The Republican Party and the Southern Question, 1869-1900 and The Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant) are a little outdated, but overall, Summers gives a judicious account of corruption and how it affected the course of the reconstruction, how it was often exaggerated, and yet how it shaped the politics of the era, and the future of the reconstruction.
Displaying 1 of 1 review