Synopses & Reviews
History casts Tammany Hall as shorthand for the worst of urban politics: graft, crime, and patronage personified by notoriously crooked characters. In Machine Made, journalist and historian Terry Golway—who has spent his life examining the Irish American experience—carefully dismantles these stereotypes and presents a starkly revisionist portrait, focusing on the many benefits of machine politics for marginalized and maligned American immigrants. As thousands fled the potato famine and began new lives in New York, the very question of the meaning of democracy and who would be included under its protection was at stake. Tammany’s transactional politics were at the heart of crucial social reforms—such as child labor laws, workers’ compensation, and minimum wages—and Golway demonstrates that American labor history cannot be understood without Tammany’s profound contribution. Golway’s groundbreaking work reveals the deep roots of Tammany influence, heretofore woefully overlooked.
Review
" tells an important but forgotten story--of how American politics once worked for the poor and weak rather than, as today, only for the rich and powerful." Amy Finnerty The New York Times Book Review
Review
"Terry Golway's Machine Made is a fine revisionist history of Tammany Hall, told with style and verve and with a keen eye for the Irish contribution to American politics." John Kelly, author of < em=""> The Graves Are Walking < m=""> and < em=""> The Great Mortality < m="">
Review
"From Boss Tweed to Al Smith, Terry Golway chronicles the highs and lows of Tammany Hall as it shaped the political life of New York City. What sets this book apart is its richly detailed study of how Tammany Hall built a political machine from the ground up, stretching from the city’s immigrant neighborhoods all the way to the state legislature. Marvelously written, Machine Made is a superb history of one of the nation's most famous political machines." Jay P. Dolan, author of < em=""> The Irish Americans: A History < m="">
Review
"In the best tradition of honest revisionism, Terry Golway has managed to sweep away layers of old stereotypes and misconceptions to explain why Tammany Hall—vilified by generations of 'reformers' and do-gooders–remained so popular with New Yorkers for over a century and still shapes American politics today. His take on the Irish immigrant experience; 'bosses' like Kelly, Croker, and Murphy; and legislators like Al Smith and Robert Wagner are spot on." Kenneth D. Ackerman, author of < em=""> Boss Tweed: The Corrupt Pol Who Conceived the Soul of Modern New York < m="">
Review
"A work that knowledgeably readjusts Tammany's reputation from a nest of corruption to an important crusader for the poor and downtrodden." Sam Roberts The New York Times
Review
"Golway's revisionist history chips away at Tammany Hall's calcified reputation and reveals that the Democratic machine that produced Boss Tweed-era corruption was also a force for worthy reform." The New York Observer
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"Terry Golway's delivers a refreshingly revisionist verdict on the Irish-dominated Democratic organization whose ring reverberated mightily in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and then faded into a faint echo... If Boss Tweed and Richard Croker remain the defining faces of Tammany, Mr. Golway... advances a breezy and convincing case that Al Smith, Senators Robert F. Wagner and Herbert Lehman, and their mentors, Tom Foley and Charles Francis Murphy, deserve distinguished pedestals in that pantheon, too." Kerby A. Miller, author of Emigrants and Exiles
Review
"[A] valuable and enjoyable analysis describing how the political machine changed the role of government--for the better to millions of disenfranchised recent American arrivals... [The] legacy Mr. Golway is so passionate about is undeniable. Tammany Hall, for all the many flaws of its leaders, helped create a welcoming environment for immigrants, making New York and the United States the beacon of hope for those seeking a better life... Now, that's a legacy worth remembering." Steven Fulop
Review
"Terry Golway's sweeping and evocative Machine Made tells an important but forgotten story—of how American politics once worked for the poor and weak rather than, as today, only for the rich and powerful. For in late 19th- and early 20th-century New York City, it was Tammany Hall, the Irish-dominated political "machine," that, alongside or in competition with labor unions and radicals, championed the needs and aspirations of American workers and immigrants, and, under progressive giants like Al Smith and Robert Wagner, spearheaded the wave of reforms and regulations that culminated in the New Deal." Kerby A. Miller, author of the prize-winning < i=""> Emigrants and Exiles: Ireland and the Irish Exodus to North America <>
Review
"Machine Made tells an important but forgotten story—of how American politics once worked for the poor and weak rather than, as today, only for the rich and powerful." Kerby A. Miller, author of < em=""> Emigrants and Exiles < m="">
Synopsis
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.
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Synopsis
A major, surprising new history of New York's most famous political machine--Tammany Hall--revealing, beyond the vice and corruption, a birthplace of progressive urban politics.
Synopsis
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 , 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.
About the Author
Terry Golway was a journalist for thirty years, writing for the New York Observer, the New York Times, and other venues. He holds a PhD in American history from Rutgers University and is currently the director of the Kean University Center for History, Politics, and Policy in New Jersey.