Publisher's Synopsis
George Wingfield has been a major figure in Nevada history since 1912, when he turned down an appointment to the United States Senate. A political and economic titan, he made a fortune in the gold fields of central Nevada and promptly bought a chain of banks and several hotels. Wingfield was active in Republican party circles and influential among Democrats. In the 1920s he controlled both political parties. His power was legendary and prevailing, as demonstrated by the near collapse of the state when his chain of banks failed. For a number years Wingfield was described, without exaggeration, as the owner and operator of the state of Nevada.;His legacy to the state has been controversial. Some have revered him as Nevada's benevolent "friend." Others have condemned him as a "sagebrush caesar," a man who politically dominated the state, "as arbitrarily as the czar ruled Russia." Elizabeth Raymond's biography depicts the man and his times, from his birth in Arkansas in 1876 until his death in Reno in 1959.;Wingfield's financial acumen was unmatched and his fortune renowned.;National newspapers extolled him as "Nevada's Napoleon." A friend to prominent men, including Bernard Baruch and Herbert Hoover, he became a significant power in Nevada partly because he remained in the state with all of his money, instead of leaving as others had done. Fiscally conservative but socially liberal, George Wingfield supported horse racing, liberalized divorce, and open gambling. His investments gave him tremendous influence in a sparsely populated state and both political opponents and outsiders came to resent it. By the 1930s, when his banks had difficulty, Wingfield was so bitterly resented that all plans to reorganize and reopen his banks failed. In 1935, defeated and shorn of all political power, Wingfield declared personal bankruptcy. Although a second fabulous gold mine brought him another fortune, he never recovered the political dominance he enjoyed at the height of his career in the 1920s.;"Elizabeth Raymond is Associate Professor of History at the University of Nevada, Reno. She received her BA "cum laude" from Princeton University and her PhD in American Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. The Wingfield biography grew out of her years as a research associate at the Nevada Historical Society, where she archived the collection of George Wingfield's papers.".;This book is intended for.
