History, Exposed
About The Author
Roland De Wolk is a San Francisco Bay Area-based author. His most recent (coming late 2026) work is Rum, Roulette & the Righteous: An American Epic of Vice, Virtue & Vengeance (Bancroft Press).
Roland has spent the vast majority of his career as an award-winning investigative reporter. He has, often concurrently, been a major market broadcast news producer, and a San Francisco State University Senior Lecturer in journalism.
Roland is the author of several books, including American Disruptor: The Scandalous Life of Leland Stanford. Among many kudos, it has been called “A wonderful read. Well written and extremely well documented.” (Bruce Cain, Director of the Lane Center for the American West at Stanford University).
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Vivid prose and a strong narrative drive.
—Journal of Interdisciplinary History
RUM, ROULETTE & THE RIGHTEOUS
An American Epic of Vice, Virtue & Vengeance
One, an unorthodox, if quintessential, American immigrant who had to fight for everything – defying all conventions – in his ceaseless quest for the American Dream.
The other an upright, privileged defender of Fortress America who enjoyed hard-won victory – and catastrophic failure – in his relentless work upholding the nation’s highest standards.
When the two forces collided, the nation witnessed a Homeric spectacle epitomizing the clashes and creation of American identity past, present, and future.
COMING LATE 2026 - BANCROFT PRESS
AMERICAN DISRUPTOR
Not just the amazingly untold story of one of America’s great robber barons, but of the building of the American West, and the consolidation of the United States of America.
American Disruptor is the untold story of Leland Stanford – from his birth in a backwoods bar to the founding of the world-class university that became and remains the nucleus of Silicon Valley. The life of this robber baron, politician, and historic influencer is the astonishing tale of how one supremely ambitious man became this country's original "disruptor" – reshaping industry and engineering one of the greatest raids on the public treasury for America’s transcontinental railroad, all while living more opulently than maharajas, kings, and emperors.
The Scandalous Life of Leland Stanford
