Review | Who Killed Jane Stanford? by Richard White
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T.I.M.E. BOOK REVIEW
Focused on the murder of Jane Stanford, the originating primary benefactor and co-founder of Stanford University. The author, Richard White, is a two-time Pulitzer Prize Finalist for his previous books, Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America and The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815. . . And also is a Professor Emeritus with Stanford University, which is at the center of this book.
Things I loved about this book? The meticulous detail and objective investigation into the historical facts with a natural curiosity and healthy intuition with denoting "this does not add up" assessments.
Perfect for readers who are looking for a book with a History Channel vibe and — at least to my experience — explores a relatively obscure historical crime that remains unsolved although the victim is of great consequence.
One final note: I listened to this book via audiobook. In general, I find nonfiction books are a great match for audiobook "reading". But, in doing my research for preparing my review, I was able to view historical photographs that I hope are included within the print version of this book.
The historical photographs were so compelling in connecting me with the characters of this story. So, in this circumstance, I do feel my experience of "reading" this story via audiobook would have been enhanced by having that visual connection as I was reading. Ultimately, we simply care more for the characters' experiences when we care about the characters themselves. . . ✨😎✨
Pages: 491
Genre: Nonfiction
Sub-Genre: Historical Nonfiction
Time Period: 1885 - 1905 | Gilded Age
Location: San Francisco (California) | Honolulu (Hawaii)
IF YOU LIKE THIS BOOK THEN TRY…
Book: The Devil In The White City by Erik Larson
TV Series: Unsolved Mysteries (Netflix)
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♡ Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I voluntarily chose to review it and the opinions contained within are my own.
SYNOPSIS
A Pulitzer Prize Finalist historian penetrates the fog of corruption and cover-up still surrounding the murder of a Stanford University founder to establish who did it, how, and why.
In 1885 Jane and Leland Stanford cofounded a university to honor their recently deceased young son. After her husband’s death in 1893, Jane Stanford, a devoted spiritualist who expected the university to inculcate her values, steered Stanford into eccentricity and public controversy for more than a decade.
In 1905 she was murdered in Hawaii, a victim, according to the Honolulu coroner’s jury, of strychnine poisoning. With her vast fortune the university’s lifeline, the Stanford president and his allies quickly sought to foreclose challenges to her bequests by constructing a story of death by natural causes. The cover-up gained traction in the murky labyrinths of power, wealth, and corruption of Gilded Age San Francisco.
The murderer walked.
Sifting the scattered evidence and conflicting stories of suspects and witnesses, Richard White gives us the first full account of Jane Stanford’s murder and its cover-up. Against a backdrop of the city’s machine politics, rogue policing, tong wars, and heated newspaper rivalries, White’s search for the murderer draws us into Jane Stanford’s imperious household and the academic enmities of the university.
Although Stanford officials claimed that no one could have wanted to murder Jane, we meet several people who had the motives and the opportunity to do so.
One of these, we discover, also had the means.
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