The Murder of Jim Fisk for the Love of Josie Mansfield

Version: Unabridged
Author: H.W. Brands
Narrator: Richard McGonagle
Genres: History
Publisher: Random House (Audio)
Date: May 2011
Length: 4 hours, 57 minutes
Ratings:
Formats :
  • MP3
  • M4B
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Overview

Even before he was shot dead on the stairway of the tony Grand Central Hotel in 1872, financier James “Jubilee Jim” Fisk, Jr., was a notorious New York City figure. From his audacious attempt to corner the gold market in 1869 to his battle for control of the geographically crucial Erie Railroad, Fisk was a flamboyant exemplar of a new financial era marked by volatile fortunes and unprecedented greed and corruption. But it was his scandalously open affair with a showgirl named Josie Mansfield that ultimately led to his demise.

In this riveting short history—the first in his American Portraits series—H. W. Brands traces Fisk’s extraordinary downfall, bringing to life New York’s Gilded Age and some of its legendary players, including Boss William Tweed, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and the railroad tycoon Jay Gould.

Author Details

Author Details

Brands, H.W.

H.W. Brands is Distinguished Professor and holder of the Melbern G. Glasscock Chair in American History at Texas A&M University. He is the author of the New York Times Bestseller The First American, an acclaimed biography of Benjamin Franklin, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Biography, as well as T.R., a celebrated biography of Theodore Roosevelt. He lives in Austin, Texas.