ISBN: 9780316463591
Editorial: Little
Año de edición: 2020
Edición: 1
N° Paginas: 416
Tipo de pasta: Pasta dura
Descripción: The "unputdownable" (Dave Eggers, National Book award finalist) story of the most infamous American con man you've never heard of: James Strang, self-proclaimed divine king of earth, heaven, and an island in Lake Michigan, "perfect for fans of The Devil in the White City" (Kirkus)A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice"A masterpiece." -- Nathaniel Philbrick In the summer of 1843, James Strang, a charismatic young lawyer and avowed atheist, vanished from a rural town in New York. Months later he reappeared on the Midwestern frontier and converted to a burgeoning religious movement known as Mormonism. In the wake of the murder of the sect's leader, Joseph Smith, Strang unveiled a letter purportedly from the prophet naming him successor, and persuaded hundreds of fellow converts to follow him to an island in Lake Michigan, where he declared himself a divine king. From this stronghold he controlled a fourth of the state of Michigan, establishing a pirate colony where he practiced plural marriage and perpetrated thefts, corruption, and frauds of all kinds. Eventually, having run afoul of powerful enemies, including the American president, Strang was assassinated, an event that was frontpage news across the country.The King of Confidence tells this fascinating but largely forgotten story. Centering his narrative on this charlatan's turbulent twelve years in power, Miles Harvey gets to the root of a timeless American original: the Confidence Man. Full of adventure, bad behavior, and insight into a crucial period of antebellum history,The King of Confidence brings us a compulsively readable account of one of the country's boldest con men and the boisterous era that allowed him to thrive.Críticas"Fascinating... Harvey, in a nonjudgmental style, sorts out reality from myth when recounting Strang's bizarre life."--Bill Castanier, Lansing City Pulse"Harvey's entertaining history... chronicles a manic, anxious, gullible time, not unlike our own."--New York Times Book Review"Is James Strang the most infamous American con man you've never heard of? That's the question animating Harvey's biography of the opportunist prophet-king, a convert who persuaded the Mormons who did not follow Brigham Young to Utah to join him on Michigan's Beaver Island. Strang's authoritarian rule may have done him in, but Harvey's marvelous rendering of this con man in fraught antebellum America may have a particular resonance today."--National Book Review"James Strang is my new favorite ne'er-do-well of history: a con artist for the centuries... Please read this book. It's the most fun you'll ever have reading about the 1840s... Enjoy this wild tale."--Molly Odintz, CrimeReads"Miles Harvey's meticulously researched taleThe King of Confidence brings alive the bizarre and chaotic arc of Strang's life... America's history is rich with tales of frauds and fakers who successfully bamboozled their fellows. In Harvey's lively and insightful book, he shows why Strang deserves to be remembered as a prime exemplar of the type."--John Reinan, Minneapolis Star Tribune"The King of Confidence reads akin to the best of thriller fiction. The true nature of the book renders the events all the more shocking and makes for an impactful read. Miles Harvey has done a masterful job bringing the past to life, narrating the whirlwind rise and fall of a true confidence man."--City Book Review"A jaunty, far-ranging history... Despite the frontier setting, there is something eerily contemporary about Harvey's portrait of a real estate huckster with monarchic ambitions, a creative relationship to debt, and a genius for mass media... Harvey deploys small scraps of knowledge to great effect. His account of Strang's rise and fall is littered with thumbnail histories of nineteenth-century cross-dressing, John Brown, John Deere, the Brontës, bloomers, the Underground Railroad, mesmerism, newspaper exchanges, the Illuminati, and much
- Idioma: Inglés
- Autor: Harvey, Miles
- Editorial: Little
- N° Paginas: 416
- Tipo de pasta: Pasta dura
- Envío: Desde EE.UU.
