Memoirs of a Millionaire

The year is 1889. America is drunk on wealth and blind to its inequalities. When Mildred Brewster inherits a fortune, she inherits a war. At a dinner party of wealthy young men discussing politics with casual cruelty, she doesn't smile and nod. She confronts them, arguing for civic duty, for the responsibilities that come with money, for a moral obligation to the less fortunate. This sets her on a collision course with her own class, and with the man who loves her but cannot fathom why she'd give money away rather than bask in it. Lucia Ames Mead, a towering feminist and social reformer of her era, wrote this novel as a weapon. It's the story of what happens when a woman with principles inherits the means to change things, and finds that every choice is a battle. The money was the easy part. The hard part is fighting for a vision of America that doesn't yet exist.