A Wonderful Career in Crime (Guest: Frank W. Garmon Jr.)

Heartland’s Tim Benson is joined by Frank W. Garmon Jr., assistant professor of American studies at Christopher Newport University, to discuss his new book, A Wonderful Career in Crime: Charles Cowlam’s Masquerades in the Civil War Era and Gilded Age. They chat Cowlam’s career as convict, spy, detective, congressional candidate, adventurer, con artist, and serial bigamist and how his life managed to intersect with Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, and Ulysses S. Grant. They also discuss the mid-19th Century’s economic system that was dependent upon trust and personal relationships and how Cowlam exposed the liabilities of the political system constructed on the same foundations.

Get the book here:
https://lsupress.org/9780807182666/a-wonderful-career-in-crime/

Creators & Guests

Host

Tim Benson

Ill Literacy, the newest podcast from The Heartland Institute, is helmed by Tim Benson, Senior Policy Analyst for Heartland’s Government Relations team. Benson brings on authors of new book releases on topics including politics, culture, and history on the Ill Literacy podcast. Every episode offers listeners the author’s unique analysis of their own book release. Discussions often shift into debate between authors and Benson when ideological differences arise, creating unique commentary that can’t be found anywhere else.

What is Heartland Daily Podcast?

The “fire hose” of all podcasts produced by The Heartland Institute, a national free-market think tank.