Greed in the Gilded Age: The Brilliant Con of Cassie Chadwick

Greed in the Gilded Age: The Brilliant Con of Cassie Chadwick, by William Elliott Hazelgrove is the story of one of the great con artists in American history. During the Gilded Age, Chadwick conned banks, while claiming to be the illegitimate, secret daughter of Andrew Carnegie. These banks gave her loans based on fake notes. She even bankrupted a bank. At her trial, Carnegie himself was so curious about her that he showed up to watch the proceedings. The Gilded Age was a time of great paradox, on the one hand the tycoons of industry were becoming the first millionaires, but on the other hand, there was terrible poverty and a fight for ethics in business. Hazelgrove seems to get this paradox. He researched thoroughly and uses quotations from the newspapers at the time throughout the book, giving it authority. However, the book is in need of editorial revising. It is quite repetitive and confusing at times, and the writing has grammatical issues. It seems like the topic would have made for a great long article in a journal, instead of an entire book, but there is value in its research.