The first modern biography of financial pioneer and philanthropist W. W. Corcoran
Before the Gilded Age reveals the extraordinary ways in which W. W. Corcoran shaped the emerging cultural elite and changed the capital and the country both for better and for worse. A complex and controversial character, Corcoran influenced banking and finance, art and American culture, philanthropy, and the nation’s capital.
Based on extensive archival research, Before the Gilded Age examines the fascinating life of an entrepreneur ahead of his time. A generation before Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller donated vast sums of money, Corcoran gave away most of his fortune and helped shape American philanthropy. His dedication to landscaping the emerging National Mall predates plans for New York’s Central Park. Other legacies included cofounding the Riggs Bank and founding the Corcoran Gallery of Art, whose collection has been dispersed among other arts organizations in Washington, DC, including the National Gallery of Art.
Mark L. Goldstein provides a colorful account of a political chameleon who successfully transcended political party, geography, and ideology to become one of the richest and most influential people in the country even as he navigated such controversies as rumors that he was linked to plots to kill President Lincoln. Before the Gilded Age also offers readers a detailed historical perspective on the development of banking, investing, lobbying, art collecting, and philanthropy.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Beginnings
2. Rise of the Political Banker
3. Selling the War
4. America’s Lobbyist
5. Culture and Community
6. The Collector
7. Interregnum
8. Resilience and Repair
9. Legacy
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Reviews
"Enormously successful in business, W. W. Corcoran was compassionate and generous, yet notoriously sympathetic to the slaveholding South. With broad context and telling detail, Goldstein gives us the first full elucidation of Corcoran’s contradictions, multifaceted achievements, and complex legacy."—John DeFerrari, historian and author of Lost Washington, D.C.
"[An] insightful and meticulously researched biography."—Washington Independent Review of Books
"Before the Gilded Age: W. W. Corcoran and the Rise of American Capital and Culture is a seminal work of detailed and meticulous scholarship resulting in an exceptionally well written and impressively comprehensive biography that is unreservedly recommended."—Midwest Book Review
About the Author
Mark L. Goldstein has held senior positions at the US Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs and the US Government Accountability Office. He holds a master’s degree in public administration from George Washington University and a PhD in US history from the University of Maryland, College Park.
