With a preface by Thomas Frank and an introduction by Michael Kazin

Out of print for decades, The Politicos: 1865-1896 (summer 2008), Matthew Josephson’s sequel to his instant classic, The Robber Barons, is even more resonant—indeed, cautionary—a historical account today than it was when first published seventy years ago. Written during the most desperate time in twentieth-century America, this biting chronicle of the Gilded Age confirmed in most Americans’ minds why they had voted overwhelmingly for FDR and had embraced the New Deal’s reforms. In his insightful introductory essay to this new edition, Michael Kazin (author of A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan) notes that “Josephson was able to convince readers living through the worst of the Great Depression that the roots of their calamity could be traced to the power and greed so notorious at the end of the last century.” In his preface to the book, Thomas Frank (author of What’s the Matter with Kansas) praises it as the “volume of history that has the most to teach us about the present.”