Financial Fraud and Guerrilla Violence in Missouri's Civil War, 1861-1865

Yale Series in Economic and Financial History

by Mark W. Geiger

This highly original work explores a previously unknown financial conspiracy at the start of the American Civil War. The book explains the reasons for the puzzling intensity of Missouri’s guerrilla conflict, and for the state’s anomalous experience in Reconstruction. In the broader history of the war, the book reveals for the first time the nature of military mobilization in the antebellum United States.

Genres: History, Civil War

320 pages, Hardcover

First published June 9, 2010

Reviews

[Julie Frasher]

Explains much of what happened to my family during those times and after, their connections, ties to other families, military service and more. Fantastic book and great for historical research.,

[WKOCH]

An excellent work. The most convincing case I've read for why Missouri culturally diverged from the rest of the Southern/border slave states, with the prewar Southern planter aristocracy of the Boonslick being effectively destroyed as a political and economic power and Missouri's southern-ness moving from what limited areas of standard Old South plantation life existed to becoming focused on the guerrillas. The few historical errors (a repeated conflation of the Missouri Volunteer Militia and the post-Camp Jackson Missouri State Guard and an erroneous claim that Jackson's Confederate government was the 11th CS state [actually the 12th]) are not overly distracting or of importance to the overall theme of the work.

[Michael]

A good book, took a while for the author to make the connection

[Michael]

Very good study on what made Missouri different during the Civil War and why guerrilla violence was so prevalent.

[Roger Bernstein]

Original research into popular effort in a slave state to support the confederacy -- very clearly and effectively presented.