A  colossal hoax
Subtitle: the giant from Cardiff that fooled America
By: Scott Tribble
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2008
Place of publication: Lanham, Md
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 311
ISBN-13: 9780742560505
Subjects: Cardiff giant; Forgery of antiquities -- New York (State) -- Cardiff -- History -- 19th century; Impostors and imposture -- New York (State) -- Cardiff -- History -- 19th century; Cardiff (N.Y.) -- Antiquities
Description: The story of the Cardiff Giant reveals many things about America in the post-Civil War years. After four years of destruction on an unimagined scale, Americans had increasingly turned their attention to the renewal of progress. But the story of the Cardiff Giant seemed to shed light on a complicated, mysterious past, and for a time scientists, clergymen, newspaper editors, and ordinary Americans struggled to make sense of it. Hucksters, of course, did their best to take advantage of it. The Cardiff Giant was one of the leading questions of the day, and how citizens answered it said much about Americans in 1869 as well as about America more generally. --from publisher description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.