"Robert B. Mitchell masterfully brings alive two forgotten characters who defined the politics of the post-Civil War era. He humanizes a House speaker and senator whose careers became intertwined for decades and whose enmity for one another probably kept both out of the White House. It's a gripping tale of corruption and patronage, with a dash of sex and lots of strife thrown in, plus a tragic story of how the federal government turned its back on the promises of Reconstruction. Politics is often defined by rivalry, and this was a good one."

- James Hohmann, columnist, The Washington Post

"Robert B. Mitchell has written a fascinating political biography of two major players in the Republican Party during the Gilded Age. Prior to Mitchell's marvelous and thoroughly researched investigation into the Blaine-Conkling feud, these political leaders had been consigned to the dustbin of history. Now they have returned in this well-written and well-argued book." - Hervey Priddy, PhD, Senior Fellow, Center for Presidential History, Southern Methodist University.

"Gilded Age politics echoed our own, with the simultaneous rise of powerful oligarchs, a white Protestant ethno-nationalist movement, political assassinations, and government corruption on a staggering scale. In telling the story of two congressional titans doggedly fighting to guide their party and country, Mitchell has given us a novel and revealing account of how America navigated this fractious, transformative age." -- Colin Woodard, historian and author of American Nations, American Character, Union, Nations Apart, Republic of Pirates, and The Lobster Coast.

Publisher: Edinborough Press

Pub date: 2025-09-29

Length: 316 pages