Presidential elections often serve as periodic demarcations from one historical epoch to another. 1876 has often been seen as the beginning of the Gilded Age. This roundtable episode brings together leading scholars of American law and politics to discuss the virtues and vices of this approach with the aim of determining if we can make sense of American political history from the Gilded Age to the present.

Essential Reading:

Richard Slotkin, A Great Disorder: National Myth and the Battle for America (2024).

Cynthia Nicoletti, Secession on Trial: The Treason Prosecution of Jefferson Davis (2017).

Recommended Reading:

Heather Cox Richardson, "Reconstruction and the Gilded Age and Progressive Era" in A Companion to the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (2017).

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What do philanthropist Jane Stanford, author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln have in common? They all conducted séances. Spiritualism was popular in the Gilded Age, and Lily Dale, NY is the epicenter of the movement. From the voices that gave you Dig: A History Podcast comes Spiritualism's Place: Reformers, Seekers, and Seances in Lily Dale. One of the authors - Dr. Elizabeth Garner Masarik - joins the show to discuss their new book.

Essential Reading:

Averill Earls, Sarah Handley-Cousins, Marissa Rhodes, and Elizabeth Garner Masarik, Spiritualism’s Place: Reformers, Seekers, and Seances in Lily Dale (2024).

Recommended Reading:

Robert S. Cox, Body and Soul: A Sympathetic History of American Spiritualism (2003).

Molly McGarry, Ghosts of Futures Past: Spiritualism and the Cultural Politics of Nineteenth-Century America (2008).

Bret E. Carroll, Spiritualism in Antebellum America (1997).

Cathy Gutierrez, Plato's Ghost: Spiritualism in the American Renaissance (2009).

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I often say how similar the Gilded Age and Progressive Era is like our contemporary times. With this show, I take it back. Cassie Chadwick was able to swindle the banks in a way that would be impossible today. Listen to Annie Reed discuss her debut book, Imposter Heiress.

Essential Reading:

Annie Reed, Imposter Heiress: Cassie Chadwick, the Greatest Grifter of the Gilded Age (2024).

Further Reading:

David Nasaw, Andrew Carnegie (2007).

Maria Konnikova, The Confidence Game (2017).

Amy Reading, The Mark Inside (2012).

Hilary Spurling, La Grande Therese: The Greatest Scandal of the Century (2000).

Tori Telfer. Confident Women (2021).

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.