The Center Could Not Hold Congressman William H. English and His Antebellum Political Times

Abstract

In one sense, Elliott Schimmel has done a great service with this book. We need a biography of William H. English, four-term congressman and the Democratic Party’s vice-presidential candidate in 1880. Not only was English a rising political star in
the 1850s, he was also a prominent banker and real estate developer in Indianapolis. His real estate projects helped build the city, a fact marked today by English Avenue, which still bears his name. Meanwhile, from its opening on the downtown Circle in
1880 until its closing in 1948, his English’s Hotel and Opera House served as a center of the city’s social and cultural life. In providing us with a deeply researched political biography, Schimmel has helped fill the need for a study of English.