Robert B. Mitchell presents "Congress and the King of Frauds: Corruption and the Credit Mobilier Scandal at the Dawn of the Gilded Age"

The Credit Mobilier scandal rocked Washington in 1873. It ruined reputations, contributed to a massive Republican defeat in the 1874 congressional elections and colored the Mark Twain-Charles Dudley Warner novel, The Gilded Age: a Tale of Today. It validated anxieties about corruption and concentrated economic power as America staggered toward industrialization. Few other political scandals have been so consequential.

“Journalist Robert B. Mitchell's definitive account features colorful characters, sleazy stock deals, swampy lobbyists, an aggressive if partisan press corps, battles over infrastructure spending and a few good men. . . . The tale of Credit Mobilier remains highly relevant.” --Bill Sternberg, USA TODAY editorial page editor and co-author of Feeding Frenzy: The Inside Story of Wedtech

“Mitchell has written a compelling, in-depth narrative of the first great modern American political scandal. His tale of corruption in Congress, excessive corporate power, a newly aggressive press corps and sensational hearings on Capitol Hill is eerily familiar to events today.” --Robert McCartney, associate editor, The Washington Post

“Gilded Age history at its best.” --Dennis Drabelle, former contributing editor at the Washington Post Book World and author of The Great American Railroad War

Robert B. Mitchell is an editor with the Washington Post News Service. He is the author of Skirmisher: the Life, Times and Political Career of James B. Weaver, winner of the 2009 Benjamin F. Shambaugh award from the State Historical Society of Iowa. He is a 1980 graduate of Grinnell College and lives in Woodbridge, Virginia, with his wife, Denise.