A good book. Well written with great characters and a good plot. The storyline flows and the mystery is enjoyable. I highly recommend.,

This was interesting and well-researched read about the Breckinridge-Pollard scandal and how it mirrors some of the events and morals of life today.

A very good book with an interesting story to tell. In addition, it places the whole episode within its cultural context. I recommend it for public and academic libraries.

Long before the #MeToo movement one 19th century woman took on the male establishment - and won. Whilst still a teenager Madeline Pollard began an affair with married Kentucky politician William Breckenridge, and at a time when a woman’s reputation was all important, fully expected he would marry her after the death of his wife. But he didn’t. He married someone else. Pollard courageously and quite unexpectedly for the era stood up and fought in the courts for breach of promise and after a long and painful battle won her case. This meticulously researched account explores in painstaking detail the affair and the court case and makes for some fascinating reading. It explores not just the lives of Breckenridge and Pollard but also puts their affair into the context of 19th century ideas and hypocrisies about women and their place in society. So far so good – but in fact the amount of detail and extraneous material almost drowns the main narrative. I can see why the author wanted to include all her research and indeed some of the background information is indeed useful and pertinent. But there’s just so much of it. A whole chapter is devoted to Grover Cleveland and his scandal, another to Breckenridge’s daughter Nisba even though she is just a bit player in the drama. The court scenes are narrated in full with all the repetitions they give rise to. A tighter narrative would have made for a more satisfying read whilst losing nothing of importance or relevance. I admit to have skimmed many passages, which was a shame, as it is indeed a remarkable story. Overall, worthy and well-written but just too long.

A bit clunky in places but an excellent peek into sex scandals of the Victorian Era. I gave it a solid three stars because it could have bben pared down a little more.

Over a century before the onset of #metoo, a previously unknown woman brought a breach of marriage suit against a powerful Washington politician. This was no small thing since she would be required to reveal her status as a “fallen woman.” Nevertheless, she took him to court in 1893, won the trial in 1894, ended his career the same year, and was consigned to the footnotes of history. Long before the likes of Harvey Weinstein graced the tabloids with accounts of disgusting behavior, Patricia Miller had heard of Madeline Pollard and begun investigating her case against one William Campbell Preston “Willie” Breckinridge.

A married man having a mistress is nothing new. In fact, the higher up in society you were the more it was almost expected of you. Both wife and mistress were kept handsomely and each had a role to play in the man’s life. But society also had unwritten rules regarding the situation: the wife should never acknowledge – or have to confront - her husband’s infidelities, and the mistress should never publicly reveal her position as Madeline Pollard did.

Miller’s book doesn’t just look at the trial and surrounding media accounts. She includes a brief history of marriage and pre-marital sex in America, and why Pollard’s case was so groundbreaking. She also looks at the sad case of Maria Halpin, who found herself pregnant with Grover Cleveland’s child after, she alleged, he raped her. Cleveland went on to be President while Halpin’s reputation was smeared forever. Cleveland was elected in 1884 and 1892. He was Breckinridge’s contemporary, in more ways than one. The final third of the book looks at Breckinridge’s re-election campaign and how women’s attitudes were changing as a result of the trial. Breckinridge lost the election due to the voices of a populace who couldn’t even vote.

Patricia Miller took ten years to research and write Bringing Down the Colonel. The result is an in-depth, yet easy to read, accounting of the scandal and how opinions on sexual relations outside of marriage and women’s rights have changed since colonial times. Are there difficulties? Yes, but they aren’t Miller’s fault. There were a large number of players involved – from legal advisors to society doyennes – and a Who’s Who might’ve been a nice addition. The involvement of Jane “Jennie” Tucker sounds almost made up – until I found independent proof that she did actually exist – but she provides an interesting counterpoint to the women who sided with Pollard. She was hired by Breckinridge’s supporters to spy for his legal team, but never received payment for her work. The actions of Breckinridge and his cronies show that when it comes to treatment of women, there is nothing new under the sun.

Disclaimer: I received an electronic copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. I was not required to write a review, and the words above are my own.

Bringing Down the Colonel: A Sex Scandal of the Gilded Age, and the "powerless" Woman Who Took on Washington is just an okay read. I give it three stars.

Bringing Down the Colonel: A Sex Scandal of the Gilded Age, and the ‘Powerless’ Woman Who Took On Washington

A look at things in Victorian America for women. A Kentucky lawyer and politician makes promises he won’t keep and plays fast and loose with young women while his wife is at home. When he’s finally brought up short and one files a lawsuit against him for breach of promise, he tries to brush her off, using his power and prominence to quiet her. Madeline Pollard files a lawsuit after Colonel Breckenridge marries another woman, leaving her in the lurch after nearly 10 years of promises to marry her. She’s left with a bad reputation and no future and takes up residence in a residence for wayward women.

Another young woman, Jennie Tucker goes undercover for the defense using another name to try and befriend Pollard and gain intel. The case goes to court, and Pollard gives her side of things, showing all that the Colonel has truly put her through, and all that she has given up for him, including the children she bore him. The case is ascribed to changing the feeling of people against women being the only party responsible when there is a public outing of a couple doing wrong, never the male, prior to this case. Sentiments became harder toward men after this in terms of morality. My thanks for the advance electronic copy that was provided by NetGalley, author Patricia Miller, and the publisher for my fair review.

Farrar, Straus and Giroux 384 pages
Pub: Nov 13th, 2018

My BookZone blog:
https://wordpress.com/post/bookblog200.wordpress.com/1029

I really enjoyed this journalistic account of how Madeline Pollard, the mistress of a Kentucky bigshot, successfully sued him for breach of contract when he refused to marry her--having repeatedly promised to do so--after the death of his wife. Miller gets into the social and sexual politics and mores of the time, the roles and activities of women, and how Pollard's suit exposed and challenged the double standard women face. Appropriate reading for this particular point in history, and an engaging read to boot.

History has a habit of remembering the big names, but thanks to writers like Miller that problem is lessening. Madeline Pollard was truly fascinating to read about her story was utterly inspiring. Whilst this was over 100 years ago it really sits with the modern reader and I am so happy this woman is in the public eye again.

There are more non-fiction narratives of bullying being published. Or so it seems to me. While reading this book, I also tore through an appalling account of present-day avarice-led bullying by lawyers and executives in Silicon Valley. This micro-history is a bullying story of the old-school, with Kentucky Congressman and revolting hypocrite William Breckinridge struggling mightily in 1894 to shut down the woman he first seduced when she was 16 (so she said, there is some disagreement). He then strung her along with promises that he would marry her when his sickly wife died. This he did through ten years and no less that three pregnancies, all the while publicly mouthing the clichés of the sanctity of marriage, which is of course a mix of behaviors all too familiar from politicians and self-appointed moral guardians in our own age. When Breckinridge's wife finally passed away, the Congressman quickly married a better-connected woman from the pathetic aristocracy of his backward native region, who might better enable him to pursue his twin hobbies of personal advancement and living beyond his means.

The abandoned woman, Madeline Pollard, [insert “hell hath no... ”, etc., here], brought a breach of promise suit against Breckinridge and, to the astonishment of many and contrary to previous practice, won a settlement equivalent to three years' salary for a Congressman. (Today, a Congressman earns $422,00 in three years.) This, in spite of tactics of moral-midget lawyers, which are completely, and sadly, familiar today: spreading lies and misinformation in the news media, and hiring a spy to attempt to befriend and betray. However, it turned out that Pollard was not entirely bereft of resources, and neither a dummy or a shrinking violet, besides.

In our sad times, it is easy to get cynical and snarky about all that “arc of history bending toward justice” stuff that seemed inspiring only a few short years ago. But moments like this can, perhaps, demonstrate that the slow accumulation of activist-driven changes in social norms, reasoning, and attitude, may not be perceptible when one day looks pretty much like the day before, but can still result in court-delivered justice becoming more like genuine justice than it was before. Cast-off women were mocked and humiliated in court before 1894 – what changed? Perhaps the small but noticeable details in the life of the average person – the female relative who had found happiness through the pursuit of education, the knowledge that belovéd sisters had been the recipients from unwanted attention from local boors, the armies of women contributing to family prosperity through jobs of long hours of insufferable tedium – made it more difficult to sit quietly by and ignore or condemn Madeline Pollard in the same way that similarly-wronged women had been in the past.

I'm a sucker for this sort of book: that is, one about a historical event that created a lot of sound and fury in its time, receded, and was forgotten – and can now be looked at with fresh eyes. This particular book is also fairly cheerful in its own peculiar way, as it is evidence that villains sometimes get the excoriation they deserve – first, in their lifetimes, and then once again, in posterity.

I received a free electronic advance review copy of this book via Netgalley and Sarah Crichton Books, an imprint of Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

When Jennie Tucker heads to Washington D.C. with the promise of a lucrative position, she has no idea what her employer has in mind for her. A single woman nearing her thirties, Jennie comes from a good family that has a beautiful home, but no money to maintain it—or her.

In Victorian America on the east coast, economic necessity forced more and more women to enter the work force when they failed to marry and their parents could no longer support them. But entering the work force carried a horrible stigma. Men viewed working girls as prey. A woman who left the traditional career path of wife and mother found herself subject to the unwanted advances of bosses, co-workers, and acquaintances.

When Jennie arrives, she discovers that Mr. Stoll, her employer, wants her to befriend a certain infamous Madeline Pollard. Jennie, happy for a position that allows her to play spy and detective, sets out to discover incriminating evidence against the woman who had recently sued the famous Colonel William P. C. Breckinridge for ‘breach of promise.’

Breach of promise suits almost never went well for the woman. In the Victorian era, a breach of promise suite implied that a woman had given her virginity to a man in exchange for a promise of marriage and now had ‘neither her virginity nor a wedding band to show for it.’ What made Madeline Pollard’s case especially scandalous was her claim that her relationship with Breckinridge had spanned eight years and produced multiple children. The colonel, during this time, was married.

A fascinating true story about how a brave woman helped change the Victorian double standard that posited that a woman must come to the alter pure, while a man could have multiple affairs—both before and after marriage.

The author weaves in fascinating facts about social mores from the Puritans to the Victorians. She explains how the double-standard at the time of the court case hurt women who strove to gain an education and gain acceptance in a world ruled by men. Readers of Erik Larson will enjoy the way the author weaves history and narrative together in a well-researched book that keeps the reader engaged from start to finish.

This is an enlightening read! The battle of the sexes still continues today. Look at the headlines if you think it doesn't - Clinton and Lewinsky - he goes Scot free and she is nowhere to be heard of again. I'm from KY, and the names are familiar in KY history. But I sure never heard about these facts!! You have to read it to believe it and it's fairly scandalous even for these times. And to think this man imagines he will just walk away without any repercussions. Oh yeah, shades of today for sure. But women banding together can change the face of the world, and they have proved it time and again.

Don't pass this book by. Not only a good read, but historical and worth knowing. Just having some lovely little tidbit to drop at a cocktail party during some political discussion makes it worth it. "Yes, this same thing happened 125 years go when..." I read through this tome quickly because it was fascinating. Now I will reread it and perhaps look up some of the references just to get a deeper look at the facts. A worthwhile book for my shelf.

An absolutely stunning piece of social history. This book is highly relevant to today's headlines concerning women's issues.. The broad and beautifully researched history tells the tale of sexual and political issues that have affected women since the founding of our nation. This book should be required reading for every women's study program in America. It should also be read by every man and member of Congress.. This is a masterwork in American historical writing.