Bringing Down the Colonel

Bringing Down the Colonel: A Sex Scandal of the Gilded Age , by Patricia Miller. In Bringing Down the Colonel , the journalist Patricia Miller tells the story of Madeline Pollard, an unlikely nineteenth-century women’s rights crusader. After an affair with a prominent politician left her “ruined,” Pollard brought the man―and the hypocrisy of America’s control of women’s sexuality―to trial. And, surprisingly, she won. Nearly 125 years after the scandal, America is still obsessed with women’s sexual morality. And in the age of Donald Trump and Harvey Weinstein, we’ve witnessed fraught public reckonings with a type of sexual exploitation unnervingly similar to that experienced by Pollard. Using newspaper articles, personal journals, previously unpublished autobiographies, and letters,  Bringing Down the Colonel  tells the story of one of the earliest women to publicly fight back.

The lecture, which will be held in the historic Stable, will be followed by light refreshments and book signing. The doors will open at 10:15 a.m.

Patricia Miller is an award-winning author and journalist who has written extensively about the intersection of politics, sex, and religion. She is the author of Good Catholics: The Battle Over Abortion in the Catholic Church  (2014). Her fascination with the untold stories of women led her on a 10-year journey to unearth the story of the Breckinridge–Pollard scandal, the topic of her second book: Bringing Down the Colonel: A Sex Scandal of the Gilded Age, and the “Powerless” Woman Who Took On Washington . Her work on the interplay of politics and sexual morality has appeared in the Atlantic, Salon, the Nation, Huffington Post, RH Reality Check, and Ms. Magazine . She received a master’s degree in journalism from New York University, and is a senior correspondent for  Religion Dispatches , where she writes about the politics of sexuality and the Catholic Church. She was formerly the editor of  Conscience  magazine and the editor in chief of  National Journal ’s daily health-care briefings, including the  Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report  and  American Healthline .

Refund requests will only be honored if made more than one week prior to lecture date.

Lecture Series books can be purchased in advance from The Mount’s Bookstore! Mount members receive a 10% discount.  Everyone receives a 15% discount if all 9 books are purchased together. If you would like to order your book(s) ahead of the lecture, e-mail our Bookstore Manager Patricia at ppin@edithwharton.org .

We would like to thank Blantyre , a Relais & Chateau property, for their generous donation and support of this season’s Summer Lecture Series at The Mount.

The Mount is a Massachusetts Cultural Council UP designated organization welcoming participants of all disabilities.   Please contact The Mount at 413-551-5100 or by email,  info@edithwharton.org,  to discuss accommodations needed to participate fully in this event. Caregivers are admitted free-of-charge.