A disposition to be rich how a small-town pastor's son ruined an American president, brought on a Wall Street crash, and made himself the best-hated man in the United States

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Summary

The compelling, unknown, behind-the-scenes story of the greatest swindler of the Gilded Age, whose villainy bankrupted Ulysses S. Grant and stunned the world of finance-told by his great-grandson, the award-winning historian Geoffrey C. Ward

Published Reviews

Publisher's Weekly Review: "Like a great 19th-century novel, this is a mordantly entertaining account of the author's great-grandfather Ferdinand Ward, whose stock brokerage collapsed spectacularly in 1885 after swindling Ulysses S. Grant and other luminaries out of millions. Ward, a historian and Ken Burns collaborator, weaves character defects and family conflicts into a social panorama, probing Ferdinand's loathsome, beguiling personality: the youthful charm that mesmerized Wall Street graybeards; the feelings of self-righteousness, entitlement, and whiny victimhood inherited from his missionary parents (but without their restraining moralism); the omnivorous greed that turned his post-Sing Sing Prison life into an endless scheme to wheedle, con, and sue money out of everyone he knew. (He even kidnapped his own son to get his wife's inheritance.) Ward, winner of an NBCC award and the Francis Parkman Prize for A First-Class Temperament, narrates a rollicking financial picaresque, but infuses it with psychological depth; Ferdinand's frauds are a tangle of personal betrayals that implicate his family as they agonize over how much of his untrustworthiness they should reveal to outsiders. The result is a fascinating study of the Victorian moral economy veering toward bankruptcy. Photos. Agent: Carl Brandt, Brandt and Hochman. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved."
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Additional Information

Subjects	Ward, Ferdinand De Wilton, 1851-1925 Grant, Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson), 1822-1885 Friends and associates Ward, F. De W. (Ferdinand De Wilton), 1812-1891 Capitalists and financiers United States Biography Swindlers and swindling United States Biography Financial crises United States History 19th century Ponzi schemes New York (State) New York History 19th century Children of clergy New York (State) Biography Biography & Autobiography Nonfiction History Business Rochester (N.Y.) Biography. New York (N.Y.) Biography. Audiobooks. 1851-1925. 1822-1885 1812-1891. 19th century.
Publisher	Old Saybrook :Tantor Media,2012 Tantor Media, Inc.2012
Edition	Unabridged.
Contributors	Dean, Robertson. OverDrive, Inc.
Participants/Performers	Read by Robertson Dean
Audience	General adult
Language	English
System Details	Mode of access: World Wide Web. Format: OverDrive MP3 Audiobook Format: OverDrive WMA Audiobook Requires OverDrive Media Console 3.0 (Windows) / 1.0 (Mac) / 1.0 (Windows Mobile) or OverDrive Media Console 1.0 / 1.0 (Windows Mobile)
Description	1 audio file : digital
ISBN	9781452625393 9781452625393
Other	Classic View