In President Donald Trump’s idealized framing, the United States was at its zenith in the 1890s.

It feels like the last Met Gala just happened (the delayed event took place in September of last year), but that wasn’t stopping Vogue Editor-In-Chief Anna Wintour from throwing a party for fashion’s biggest night on he first Monday of May like she normally does.

We’re just a few months into the new year, and already, there has been SO much good TV to watch. It’s hard to keep up these days!

Starobin tells a jaunty tale of jaw-dropping greed at the dawn of the 20th century. The complex scheme to grab the gold involved political appointments and back-room deals, but boiled down to having a federal judge in Alaska appoint McKenzie as receiver to a series of contested gold mine claims. Miners fighting off the claim jumpers were unaware that McKenzie had secretly engineered the appointment of the crooked judge, who did his bidding. Receivers are supposed to safeguard disputed assets, but McKenzie wanted to use the legal proceedings to make sure the gold was extracted for himself and his co-conspirators. He even made a play for Alaskas beaches, which were common areas open to anyone who wanted to sift for gold dust in the surf.