When Bad Men Combine: The Star Route Scandal and the Twilight of Gilded Age Politics

The Star Route scandal captured the nation's attention for more than a decade, with newspapers throughout the United States characterizing it as an unprecedented case of Gilded Age graft. Shawn Francis Peters's When Bad Men Combine provides a glimpse into this uniquely tumultuous period marked by brazen greed and duplicity. In the first book to offer a full recounting of the Star Route maelstrom, which roiled American politics during the 1870s and 1880s, Peters reveals how postal service corruption resulted in a remarkable legal case that featured jury bribery and document theft. When Bad Men Combine follows the saga to its culmination as two sensational criminal trials presented evidence implicating some of the most prominent men in America and, perhaps, led to the assassination of President James Garfield.

Author: Shawn Francis Peters
Publisher: LSU Press
Published: 03/15/2023
Pages: 376
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.59lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9780807179000

About the Author
Shawn Francis Peters is an instructor at the Center for Educational Opportunity at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he also earned a PhD in United States history. He is the author of six books, including The Infamous Harry Hayward: A True Account of Murder and Mesmerism in Gilded Age Minneapolis.