A Dirty Year

Sex, Suffrage, and Scandal in Gilded Age New York

By: Bill Greer

Narrated by: Peter Berkrot

Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's Summary

As 1872 opened, the New York Times headlined four stories that symptomized the decay in public morals that the editors so frequently decried: financier Jim Fisk was gunned down in a love triangle; suffragist and free-love advocate Victoria Woodhull was running for president; antivice activist Anthony Comstock battled smut dealers poisoning children’s minds; and abortionists were thriving. 

Throughout the year, these stories intertwined in unimaginable ways, pulling in others, both famous and infamous - suffragists Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton; Brooklyn’s beloved preacher Henry Ward Beecher; the nation’s richest tycoon, Cornelius Vanderbilt; and William Howe, preeminent counsel to the criminal element. 

From rigged elections, everyday shootings, and attacks on the press to sexual impropriety, reproductive rights, and the chasm between rich and poor, the issues of the day still resonate. Political parties split over a bitterly contested election; suffragist battled suffragist over bettering women’s place in society; and pious saints fought soulless sinners, until at year end, this jumble of conflicts exploded in the greatest sensation of the 19th century.

©2020 Bill Greer (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing

Compelling, witty and relevant

Greer's book plays out like a Robert Altman movie with multiple narrative strands introducing the key characters of his story; and like Altman at his best, Greer performs a perfect balancing act as each chapter leaves us hungry to learn more about one player but eager to return to the story of another. Centre-stage is the glorious Victoria Woodhull, whose run for President is perhaps surprisingly one of the least dramatic events of the two years Greer explores. Far from a dry history this is an action-packed account of the Gilded Age and its lasting impact on American society. Peter Berkrot relishes every word of his narration which captures vividly the theatricality of the times, where Broadway shows and the tabloid press vie with court cases and Sunday sermons for the public's attention. The misogyny facing the suffrage movement is of course predictable, but Greer depicts it afresh in shocking detail, portraying not only the struggles of leading lights such as Woodhull, her sister Tennie Claflin, and their critic Susan B Anthony, but women of all classes. There are some wonderful villains at work here too, though even the hypocrite preacher Henry Beecher Ward is given fair treatment, in keeping with Greer's nuanced understanding of the wider historical context. Highly recommended!