Power, patronage, and political violence Book

I picked up this book mainly for research (since I'm getting into writing historical fiction set in the Gilded Age). It's a fascinating look at the high society of the period. Some of the rituals and beliefs of that society border on what we would think today as absurd. But at the same time, it was interesting and also helped me greatly in my research.

My one complaint about the book is that it limited the discussion of the top drawer society of the Gilded Age to a certain area of the United States - mainly the East Coast like New York and Boston. There was hardly any mention of anywhere else. Washington society was mentioned a bit and there were smatterings of mentions of the South but almost nothing of the West Coast. I would have liked a much wider range of experiences in this society all over the United States and not just the so-called leaders of the aristocratic circles of the time. Overall, though, an informative and entertaining book.