A review by kleonard
Bringing Down the Colonel: A Sex Scandal of the Gilded Age, and the Powerless Woman Who Took on Washington by Patricia Miller

4.0

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.