An Unofficial 'The MeatEater Podcast' Reading List

601. Scandal in the White House

September 17, 2025

Description

Who was Grover Cleveland, and why is he one of the most controversial American Presidents of all time? Why was the run up to his first term, in 1884 at the height of the Gilded Age, so pivotal to...
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Books Referenced

The Moonstone

Author: Wilkie Collins

Context:

Referenced as an example of Victorian sensation fiction that the Cleveland scandal story resembles, particularly noting elements like stolen babies and grotesquely fat villains

The Woman in White

Author: Wilkie Collins

Context:

Referenced as an example of Victorian sensation fiction, particularly compared to the Cleveland story because it features a widow imprisoned in a lunatic asylum and a villain whose salient feature is being very fat (Count Fosco)

A Secret Life, The Lies and Scandals of President Grover Cleveland

Author: Charles Lackman

Context:

Mentioned as a book that goes into great detail about the Maria Halpin scandal and Cleveland's involvement, including testimony from witnesses like Minnie Kendall

A Man of Iron

Author: Troy Sennick

Context:

Described as the most recent biography of Cleveland, published in 2022. The book argues that Cleveland was likely framed by partisan Republicans and examines the evidence of the scandal. The author is noted as a former speechwriter for George W. Bush

Grover Cleveland: A Study in Courage

Author: Alan Nevins

Context:

Referenced as the canonical Cleveland biographer for much of the 20th century, a distinguished professor at Columbia University who won the Pulitzer Prize. His biography is described as one of those vast American presidential biographies thousands of pages long, and he concluded the scandal was pure Republican scandal-mongering