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alexan13's review against another edition
4.0
I thought this book more or less accomplished what it set out do in using the murder of Jane Stanford as a lens through which to look at the founding of Stanford University in its specific context of the Gilded Age Bay Area. I definitely learned more about this period in California history (and about the school) than I knew previously. However, the narrative did feel somewhat disjointed at times and I would have liked the a chapter or two where the author zoomed out a bit more to talk about how the role of the university and academia were conceived in the post-Civil War era. There were definitely moments of this, but I think they would have been more meaningful with a bit more context.
gusreads's review
informative
sad
medium-paced
2.5
A fascinating story - I had no idea that Stanford’s growth into a prestigious national research university was built on an unsolved murder and a coverup orchestrated by the University’s President. It’s too bad the book isn’t as strong as the story. The epilogue is excellent, the rest is a mess. This book is full of names and details and the author fails to construct a coherent narrative or through line. He’s a historian writing a true crime book and he did not succeed.
leslielu67's review against another edition
2.0
A book not for the general public, because - who would care? And the evidence is presented in such a convoluted manner that who could follow it? White totally lost me when he was tracing the Chinese societies and their links to each other and to corrupt SF politicians, as well as the he-said/she-said of the Ross Affair and the later Affair whose name I cannot recall. What is proven: Jane Stanford was a nut with plenty of enemies and was definitely murdered via poison, and David Starr Jordan was a self-preserving bastard and liar (and noted - not closeted - eugenicist!). That Jordan's name was on a university building for almost 100 years should be embarrassing to the school. Crothers appears as the only stand-up guy in this tale - he should warrant more than a cinder block dorm named after him.