Fraud: An American History from Barnum to Madoff.

• Date: 01 August 2018
• Author: Hoff, Samuel B.

Balleisen, Edward J. Fraud: An American History from Barnum to Madoff. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2017. xiv + 479 pages. Hardcover, $43.95.

The author, an associate professor of history and public policy and vice provost for Interdisciplinary Studies at Duke University, utilizes manuscripts and collections, law journals, interviews, newspaper archives, and other sources to trace the four phases of fraud conducted by businesses in American history together with regulatory efforts to limit commercial deceit. He observes that actions taken against occupational fraud help to explain the broader history of American business regulation.

After a few introductory chapters constituting the first section, Part II includes Chapters 3 and 4 and covers the period from the 1810s to the 1880s. As the size of American businesses grew, it became apparent that state and local protections against fraud were inadequate. The Gilded Age witnessed trade groups, newspapers, and private monitoring of businesses, though few convictions of commercial personnel for fraud-related offenses.

Part III, encompassing Chapters 5 through 8, traverses the period from the 1860s to the 1930s. During this span, American society progressed in areas of law, education, and science...