Before the Gilded Age: W. W. Corcoran and the Rise of American Capital and Culture - Hardcover

Goldstein, Mark L.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1647123615 ISBN 13: 9781647123611

Publisher: Georgetown University Press, 2023

Synopsis

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.

About this title

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.

Edition details

• Publisher: Georgetown University Press
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1647123615
• ISBN 13: 9781647123611
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288