Book Review: The King of Confidence

Miles Harvey, The King of Confidence: A Tale of Utopian Dreamers, Frontier Schemers, True Believers, False Prophets, and the Murder of an American Monarch. New York: Little Brown and Company, 2020.  ISBN: 9780316463591.

 

Genre: biography, U.S. history

Subgenre: crime, cons, antebellum United States

Format: e-book galley

Source: NetGalley

 

This is the story of James Strang, probably one of the greatest American confidence men, or con men, that you may not have heard of.  Strang basically formed a cult, an offshoot of the Mormons, made his base in a small island in the Great Lakes with a few followers, and then declared himself Prophet of God and King. That is a very basic summary. The man held various jobs, often transformed himself from one con to the next, and was even a Michigan state legislator for a time. He was a con man at a time when con men were rising in the United States during the antebellum period. Antebellum United States was a volatile time, but it was also a time of innovations as well as risks and rule breaking. As the author writes, "the mid-nineteenth century was a time when everything-- even time itself-- seemed indeterminate, malleable, open to new rules" (13). James Strang took full advantage. 

For starters, we get Strang's story from his rise to his death. Though this is a modern book, in some ways the narrative reads like a mid-nineteenth century novel written by someone like Hawthorne or Melville, authors who were active at the time. This makes the story a bit more immersive for readers. It is also an engaging story that one just keeps on reading. 

A strength of the book is that it gives a broad and detailed picture of antebellum United States. The author tells us about the many events going on at the time as well as various personalities who were active at the time. To give readers an idea, here is a very small list of some of the people and things going on at the time, in no specific order: 

 

• Daguerre was inventing the "power to freeze time" (that would lead to photography). 
• Samuel F.B. Morse and the telegraph (1844).
• Alexis de Tocqueville was visiting the U.S. (1831).
• So did Charles Dickens at one point.
• The Mexican-American War (1848).
• Herman Melville writes the book The Confidence Man. 
• P.T. Barnum in 1842 introduces General Tom Thumb to the world.
   

For me, such details made the story more interesting and helped me to visualize the era better. This book is not just a biography. It is a well written history of the United States at the time through the lens of James Strang's life. You are bound to learn new things and/or see them in a different light from reading this book.

 

 In addition, it is a well researched and documented book. The author often uses primary sources to help tell the story. Some of those newspaper clips can be quite interesting on their own. The book features as well a pretty extensive set of notes at the end and a bibliography. 

Overall, I really liked this book. It was an interesting read about a chapter of United States history I do not know about until now. Though it can feel a bit lengthy in the middle-- the pace slows a bit-- all in all it is a good read. I am sure with a bit of editing this story could be a movie on one of the streaming services. 

I'd recommend this book for public and academic libraries, especially for readers who enjoy historical biographies, U.S. history, and books about crimes and cons. We already bought a copy at our library. 

4 out of 5 stars

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Additional reading notes: 

 

Defining confidence in the mid-nineteenth century: 

 

"And in those days before electrical power, confidence is what made antebellum America hum. Confidence was black magic, good fortune, and hard cash combined. Confidence could turn worthless paper into glittering gold, cow towns into cities, empty lots into bustling businesses, losers into winners, paupers into millionaires. Confidence was a charm deployed by bankers and merchants, philosophers and politicians, clergymen and card sharps alike" (18). 

 

Confidence could make one a fortune, but it could also get one in trouble. In addition, 

 

"But the antebellum era was full of figures with a special gift for slipping back and forth between disrepute and respectability" (31). 

 

Historically, Americans are very susceptible to swindlers who look good and sound like good business men, even if those men are not the real deal. Today, this could explain the rise of Donald Trump. Charles Dickens, on visiting the United States, noticed it and wrote on it: 

 

"Dickens was surprised to discover that those responsible for the scheme, instead of being condemned by the public, received only praise. He attributed this fact to a strange American 'love of 'smart' dealing: which gilds over many a swindle and gross breach of trust. . .and enables many a knave to hold his head up with the best'" (52). 

This love of "smart" remains today, though "smart" is clearly relative to put it mildly. 

That love of "smart" men and scoundrels can also apply to Strang's appeal: 

"No doubt this same love of scoundrels accounted for some of Strang's appeal. In the anxious climate of antebellum America, where a sense of powerlessness ran as rampant as typhoid fever, people were drawn to those who succeeded at writing their own rules, inventing their own truths" (54). 

Some books from the bibliography for the TBR list: 

• P.T. Barnum, Life of P.T. Barnum (1855, 1888). Find also online free at Internet Archive.
  
• Charles Dickens, American Notes. Find it also free online at Internet Archive.
  
• James W. Cook, The Arts of Deception: Playing with Fraud in the Age of Barnum.
  

 

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This book qualifies for the following 2022 Reading Challenge: