The Statesman and the Socialite: Carl Schurz and Fanny Chapman

About the Book

Carl Schurz was a larger-than-life public figure whose exploits, real and concocted appeared in newspapers nationwide during the nineteenth century. His letters to Fanny Chapman, his secret love, leave a picture of an age of turmoil, corruption, social graces, and artistic explosion. It took a renaissance man like Carl Schurz to travel among the greats in the literary, artistic and political arenas with grace and judgement. The tragedy of his life, if there was one, is that he is nearly forgotten in the modern world in the face of revisionist history. He was a fighter for human rights including all races and creeds and a pioneer muckraker in a corrupt city of a “Gilded Age”. Lost are his educational contributions, his unpopular and prophetic political stance for Civil Service reform and his fight against a trend toward national imperialism.

About the Author

Dr. Peter Lubrecht was awarded the George Hartleb Memorial Award for Excellence in German American Studies by the National Steuben Society in 2018. An avid researcher, with an interest in the Civil War, history, and German and American history. Lubrecht has been lecturing about German American contributions to American Culture locally and nationally. Peter is originally from New York City, where he appeared in, and was a part of, an experimental theater program conducted by the New York Public Schools, under whose aegis he studied acting with Harold Jackson of the Harlem Renaissance,. He was on NPR as a guest at age nine. He is an adjunct professor of Writing and Humanities at Sussex County Community College; however he also taught at Lehman University Graduate School and Lincoln Center (Performing Arts in the English Classroom), Jersey City University, Bergen, Morris and Passaic Community Colleges. His BA, MA and PhD are all from New York University. His books include: The New Jersey Butterfly Boys in the Civil War. The Hussars of the Union Army (History Press; 2011) and Germans in New Jersey: A History (History Press; 2013); New Jersey Hessians: Truth and Lore; (History Press 2016) Liebe Kück: A German Soldier’s Story of the Great War, and Carl Schurz American Statesman (Fonthill Media America through Time series) .