0
Your cart

Your cart is empty

Books > History > American history

Buy Now

Machine Made - Tammany Hall and the Creation of Modern American Politics (Hardcover) Loot Price: R706
Discovery Miles 7 060
Machine Made - Tammany Hall and the Creation of Modern American Politics (Hardcover): Terry Golway

Machine Made - Tammany Hall and the Creation of Modern American Politics (Hardcover)

Terry Golway

 (sign in to rate)
Loot Price R706 Discovery Miles 7 060 | Repayment Terms: R66 pm x 12*

Bookmark and Share

Expected to ship within 12 - 17 working days

For decades, history has considered Tammany Hall, New York's famous political machine, shorthand for the worst of urban politics: graft, crime, and patronage personified by notoriously corrupt characters. Infamous crooks like William "Boss" Tweed dominate traditional histories of Tammany, distorting our understanding of a critical chapter of American political history. In Machine Made, historian and New York City journalist Terry Golway convincingly dismantles these stereotypes; Tammany's corruption was real, but so was its heretofore forgotten role in protecting marginalized and maligned immigrants in desperate need of a political voice.

Irish immigrants arriving in New York during the nineteenth century faced an unrelenting onslaught of hyperbolic, nativist propaganda. They were voiceless in a city that proved, time and again, that real power remained in the hands of the mercantile elite, not with a crush of ragged newcomers flooding its streets. Haunted by fresh memories of the horrific Irish potato famine in the old country, Irish immigrants had already learned an indelible lesson about the dire consequences of political helplessness. Tammany Hall emerged as a distinct force to support the city's Catholic newcomers, courting their votes while acting as a powerful intermediary between them and the Anglo-Saxon Protestant ruling class. In a city that had yet to develop the social services we now expect, Tammany often functioned as a rudimentary public welfare system and a champion of crucial social reforms benefiting its constituency, including workers' compensation, prohibitions against child labor, and public pensions for widows with children. Tammany figures also fought against attempts to limit immigration and to strip the poor of the only power they had the vote.

While rescuing Tammany from its maligned legacy, Golway hardly ignores Tammany's ugly underbelly, from its constituents' participation in the bloody Draft Riots of 1863 to its rampant cronyism. However, even under occasionally notorious leadership, Tammany played a profound and long-ignored role in laying the groundwork for social reform, and nurtured the careers of two of New York's greatest political figures, Al Smith and Robert Wagner. Despite devastating electoral defeats and countless scandals, Tammany nonetheless created a formidable political coalition, one that eventually made its way into the echelons of FDR s Democratic Party and progressive New Deal agenda.

Tracing the events of a tumultuous century, Golway shows how mainstream American government began to embrace both Tammany s constituents and its ideals. Machine Made is a revelatory work of revisionist history, and a rich, multifaceted portrait of roiling New York City politics in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries."

General

Imprint: Liveright Publishing Corporation
Country of origin: United States
Release date: March 2014
First published: March 2014
Authors: Terry Golway
Dimensions: 244 x 165 x 35mm (L x W x T)
Format: Hardcover - Cloth over boards
Pages: 400
ISBN-13: 978-0-87140-375-9
Categories: Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > General
Books > Humanities > History > World history > 1750 to 1900
Books > Humanities > History > American history > General
Books > Humanities > History > World history > From 1900 > General
Books > History > American history > General
Books > History > World history > 1750 to 1900
Books > History > World history > From 1900 > General
LSN: 0-87140-375-7
Barcode: 9780871403759

Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate? Let us know about it.

Does this product have an incorrect or missing image? Send us a new image.

Is this product missing categories? Add more categories.

Review This Product

No reviews yet - be the first to create one!

Partners