1814-1886

Argues that illegal maneuvers by Republicans robbed the 1876 presidential election from New York democrat Samuel J. Tilden and gave it to Rutherford B. Hayes; and discusses the election's effect on race relations.

Gore Vidal dramatizes the U.S.'s centennial through the eyes of Charlie Schuyler, who returns to New York from exile and arranges for his widowed daughter to marry a rich man--and corruption seeps into Charlie's family even as it rages at the highest levels of the U.S. government.