The Murder of Jim Fisk for the Love of Josie Mansfield: A Tragedy of the Gilded Age

Written by H. W. Brands

Narrated by Richard McGonagle

The two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, bestselling historian, and author of Our First Civil War traces the extraordinary downfall of financier Jubilee Jim, bringing to life New York’s Gilded Age and some of its legendary players, including Boss William Tweed, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and the railroad tycoon Jay Gould.

Even before he was shot dead on the stairway of the tony Grand Central Hotel in 1872, financier James “Jubilee Jim” Fisk, Jr., was a notorious New York City figure. From his audacious attempt to corner the gold market in 1869 to his battle for control of the geographically crucial Erie Railroad, Fisk was a flamboyant exemplar of a new financial era marked by volatile fortunes and unprecedented greed and corruption. But it was his scandalously open affair with a showgirl named Josie Mansfield that ultimately led to his demise.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
• Release date: May 31, 2011
• ISBN: 9780307933867

H. W. Brands

H.W. Brands taught at Texas A&M University for sixteen years before joing the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is the Dickson Allen Anderson Centennial Professor of History. He is a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and the author of multiple books.