A thoroughly absorbing cultural biography of a figure who has long existed in the historical shadows but who we now know had a major impact on just about every important political and diplomatic initiative of the second half of the nineteenth century. I am grateful to Jeffrey Boutwell for his brilliant historical recovery of George Boutwell--a man who did what he could to create a better, more equitable America.--Robert S. Levine, author of The Failed Promise: Reconstruction, Frederick Douglass, and the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson Jeffrey Boutwell has done something tremendous in recovering the extraordinary life of his distant relative, George S. Boutwell. Taking readers from the antebellum era through the Civil War, into Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, Boutwell provides an insider's view of the pivotal moments that laid the groundwork for modern America. Along the way, we meet an important but largely forgotten figure whose friendship and advice was valued by leaders like Lincoln and Grant.--Jonathan W.

White, Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize-winning author of A House Built by Slaves: African American Visitors to the Lincoln White House As America matures as a nation, we must face the realities of the past. Part of that is the admission that some of our conventional heroes were deeply flawed. But part of it is the realization that we have other heroes, who fought for the ideals we now hold central to our American identity. Boutwell the man was a hero, and Boutwell the book is a revelation, a gripping tale of how Americans struggled to make the promise of equality into something more than mere words.--Kermit Roosevelt, David Berger Professor for the Administration of Justice, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.