Fakers Old And New [ First Edition , Con Artistry , Association ]

Description

First edition history of con artistry owned by an Alberta Social Credit Politician.

Chideckel, Maurice. Fakers Old And New : History of Cunning and Stupidity. Stratford Co : Boston. 1933.

 

Attractive and well preserved first edition of Fakers Old And New , a highly entertaining and off-color history of con artistry. Arranged geographically and focusing on notable fraudsters and purported holy men from each region. Includes chapters on Joseph Smith and the rise of Mormonism as well as Rasputin in Russia.

This copy formerly owned by Howard Burton MacDonald, three-term member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, Canada, and member of the right wing populist Social Credit movement.

Social Credit, the now discredited economic theory of Major C.H. Douglass, argued that the availability of goods and limited purchasing power of individuals had made modern life into a debt trap. Popular in Depression era Canada, Social Credit took root in Alberta thanks to radio promotions by the region’s Premier, William Aberhart, a fundamentalist Christian who claimed bankers were agents of the literal devil.

MacDonald, elected to his first term the year after Aberhart’s death in 1944, was a staunch supporter of the Social Credit Party’s next leader, Ernest Manning, who was briefly able to take the party to national prominence in the 1950s and 60s.

The Social Credit movement in Canada lost popularity due to the rise of anti-banking and anti-Semitic conspiracies among some members — including CH Douglas’ own later work– and the claim by some that it was effectively a nonsensical, conservative cult of personality.

MacDonald’s own appearances on the radio though out the 1950s make sure to mention Manning and the party’s achievements at every opportunity, though he was publicly accused of stealing credit for Federal government’s response to the 1952 flooding of the Bow River.

 

8vo, 275 pp, red cloth boards with title and author gilt to front and spine. Corners bumped, wear with losses to top spine and lower board fore corners. Bookblock, endpapers, and pastedowns toned. Pen ownership inscription “The World Awaits You” front paste down. Some pencil annotations and emphases, pages otherwise clean. Very good condition.

 

If you liked this book, you might also like this copy of Leading Cases owned by Sir Arthur Quiller Couch.