Machine Made: Tammany Hall and the Creation of Modern American Politics
Machine Made: Tammany Hall and the Creation of Modern American Politics

Author: Terry Golway

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2014-03-03

Total Pages: 511

ISBN-13: 0871407922

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“Golway’s revisionist take is a useful reminder of the unmatched ingenuity of American politics.”—Wall Street Journal History casts Tammany Hall as shorthand for the worst of urban politics: graft and patronage personified by notoriously crooked characters. In his groundbreaking work Machine Made, journalist and historian Terry Golway dismantles these stereotypes, focusing on the many benefits of machine politics for marginalized immigrants. As thousands sought refuge from Ireland’s potato famine, the very question of who would be included under the protection of American democracy 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 political history cannot be understood without Tammany’s profound contribution. Culminating in FDR’s New Deal, Machine Made reveals how Tammany Hall “changed the role of government—for the better to millions of disenfranchised recent American arrivals” (New York Observer).

Tell the Machine Goodnight
Tell the Machine Goodnight

Author: Katie Williams

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2019-06-18

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 0525533133

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FINALIST FOR 2018 KIRKUS PRIZE NAMED ONE OF THE "BEST LITERARY FICTION OF 2018' BY KIRKUS REVIEWS "Sci-fi in its most perfect expression…Reading it is like having a lucid dream of six years from next week, filled with people you don't know, but will." —NPR "[Williams’s] wit is sharp, but her touch is light, and her novel is a winner." – San Francisco Chronicle "Between seasons of Black Mirror, look to Katie Williams' debut novel." —Refinery29 Smart and inventive, a page-turner that considers the elusive definition of happiness. Pearl's job is to make people happy. As a technician for the Apricity Corporation, with its patented happiness machine, she provides customers with personalized recommendations for greater contentment. She's good at her job, her office manager tells her, successful. But how does one measure an emotion? Meanwhile, there's Pearl's teenage son, Rhett. A sensitive kid who has forged an unconventional path through adolescence, Rhett seems to find greater satisfaction in being unhappy. The very rejection of joy is his own kind of "pursuit of happiness." As his mother, Pearl wants nothing more than to help Rhett--but is it for his sake or for hers? Certainly it would make Pearl happier. Regardless, her son is one person whose emotional life does not fall under the parameters of her job--not as happiness technician, and not as mother, either. Told from an alternating cast of endearing characters from within Pearl and Rhett's world, Tell the Machine Goodnight delivers a smartly moving and entertaining story about the advance of technology and the ways that it can most surprise and define us. Along the way, Katie Williams playfully illuminates our national obsession with positive psychology, our reliance on quick fixes. What happens when these obsessions begin to overlap? With warmth, humor, and a clever touch, Williams taps into our collective unease about the modern world and allows us see it a little more clearly.

When Bosses Ruled Philadelphia
When Bosses Ruled Philadelphia

Author: Peter McCaffery

Publisher: Penn State Press

Published: 2010-11-01

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 0271040572

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In 1903, Muckraker Lincoln Steffens brought the city of Philadelphia lasting notoriety as "the most corrupt and the most contented" urban center in the nation. Famous for its colorful "feudal barons," from "King James" McManes and his "Gas Ring" to "Iz" Durham and "Sunny Jim" McNichol, Philadelphia offers the historian a classic case of the duel between bosses and reformers for control of the American city. But, strangely enough, Philadelphia's Republican machine has not been subject to critical examination until now. When Bosses Ruled Philadelphia challenges conventional wisdom on the political machine, which has it that party bosses controlled Philadelphia as early as the 1850s and maintained that control, with little change, until the Great Depression. According to Peter McCaffery, however, all bosses were not alike, and political power came only gradually over time. McManes's "Gas Ring" in the 1870s was not as powerful as the well-oiled machine ushered in by Matt Quay in the late 1880s. Through a careful analysis of city records, McCaffery identifies the beneficiaries of the emerging Republican Organization, which sections of the local electorate supported it, and why. He concludes that genuine boss rule did not emerge as the dominant institution in Philadelphia politics until just before the turn of the century. McCaffery considers the function that the machine filled in the life of the city. Did it ultimately serve its supporters and the community as a whole, as Steffens and recent commentators have suggested? No, says McCaffery. The romantic image of the boss as "good guy" of the urban drama is wholly undeserved.

The Winter of Frankie Machine
The Winter of Frankie Machine

Author: Don Winslow

Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard

Published: 2006-09-26

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 0307266079

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FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE CARTEL. Frankie Machianno, a hard-working entrepreneur, passionate lover, part-time surf bum, and full-time dad, is a pillar of his waterfront community—and a retired hit man. Once better known as Frankie Machine, he was a brutally efficient killer. Now someone from his past wants him dead, and after a botched attempt on his life, Frankie sets out to find his potential killers. However, the list of suspects is longer than the California coastline. With the mob on his heels and the cops on his tail, Frankie hatches a plan to protect his family, save his life, and escape the mob forever. Then things get really complicated.

Boss Rule in South Texas
Boss Rule in South Texas

Author: Evan Anders

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 1982-11-01

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 0292707630

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Four men played leading roles in the political drama that unfolded in South Texas during the first decades of this century: James B. Wells, who ruled as boss of Cameron County and served as leading conservative spokesman of the Democratic Party in Texas; Archer (Archie) Parr, whose ruthless tactics and misuse of public funds in Duval County established him as one of the most notoriously corrupt politicians in Texas history; Manuel Guerra, Mexican American rancher and merchant whose domination of Starr County mirrored the rule of his Anglo counterparts in the border region; John Nance Garner, who served the interests of these bosses of South Texas as he set forth on the road that would lead him to the United States vice-presidency. Evan Anders's Boss Rule in South Texas tells the story of these men and the county rings they shaped in South Texas during the Progressive Era. Power was the byword of the bosses of the Lower Rio Grande Valley, and Anders explores the sources of that power. These politicos did not shirk from using corrupt and even violent means to attain their goals, but Anders demonstrates that their keen sensitivity to the needs of their diverse constituency was key to their long-term success. Patronage and other political services were their lifeblood, and the allies gained by these ranged from developers and businessmen to ranchers and Mexican Americans, wealthy and poor. Besides examining the workings of the Democratic machines of four South Texas counties, Anders explores the role of the Hispanic populace in shaping the politics of the border region, the economic development of the Lower Rio Grande Valley and its political repercussions, the emergence and nature of progressive movements at both local and state levels, and the part played by the Texas Rangers in supporting bossism in South Texas.

Shadow Shoguns
Shadow Shoguns

Author: Jacob M. Schlesinger

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 9780804734578

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This is a vivid account of the corrupt and improbable political machine that ran Japanese politics for twenty years, from the early 1970s to the early 1990s, the period during which Japan became the world's second-largest economy. Reviews "Washington lobbyists, Moscow mafiosi, and Beijing party bosses stand back! . . . Here is one of the longest running big-time political sleaze serials of the past quarter-century. . . . This was a book waiting to be written, and not only has Schlesinger done it, but he has also produced a fine job of political reporting." --New York Times Book Review "In a rollicking style, Schlesinger . . . demolishes the popular misconception that politicians are boring. His is a tale of monstrous personalities. . . . This is the most entertaining short history of Japanese politics this reviewer has encountered." --The Economist "A story which is told vividly in this well researched and reliable account. . . . A superb analysis of Japan's politics and economic affairs." --Washington Post Book World "Shadow Shoguns is a lively and anecdote-rich account of the eerie parallels between Tokyo's now-battered political machine and New York's Tammany Hall. . . . Schlesinger masterfully demonstrates why Prime Minister Tanaka personified the collusive ties between Japanese politicians and Big Business." --Business Week "A fascinating and penetrating tale about the Tanaka machine that dominated Japan's politics for several decades and whose demise in the early 1990s has created a political vacuum that accounts for many of Japan's current problems." --Foreign Affairs

Instrumental Form:
Instrumental Form:

Author: Wes Jones

Publisher:

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 402

ISBN-13:

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Wes Jones has defined a new industrial aesthetic for the 21st century.

Boss Cox's Cincinnati
Boss Cox's Cincinnati

Author: Zane L. Miller

Publisher: Ohio State University Press

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13: 9780814208618

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Miller carefully explores both the nature and the significance of bossism, showing how it and municipal reform were both essential components of the modern urban political system.

She's the Boss
She's the Boss

Author: Rochelle Schweizer

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2010-09-23

Total Pages: 275

ISBN-13: 1101443510

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Why Is Nancy Pelosi the Most Dangerous Woman in America? Most people see Pelosi exactly the way she wants them to: a cultured San Franciscan politician from an esteemed family. But underneath the Chanel suit and Mikimoto pearls is a true political boss-as in T weed. Don't be fooled by her image as a caring, grandmotherly public servant. Nancy Pelosi is all business. She's the Boss charts Pelosi's carefully orchestrated rise to power as a uniquely American ruling-class diva who is not so subtly replacing "by the people, for the people" with "have your people call my people." From her father- a congressman and then mayor of Baltimore whose political machine was tainted by scandal-Pelosi learned about patronage, ruthlessness, and the credo of the party boss: never admit to anything, never apologize, and attack when challenged. As Speaker of the House, Pelosi once pounded her gavel so hard it left a dent in the lectern. She frightens even those who agree with her on almost everything. She punishes those who stand in her way. And her hypocrisy knows no bounds: ? While Pelosi spends millions in taxpayers' dollars to green up the capital and expects Americans to pay for their carbon footprints, she demands a bigger jet for her trips across the globe as well as military G5s for holiday weekends. ? She claims to act for the benefit of the American people, yet enriches her family's portfolio through pet legislation and personal financial dealings. ? She tried to enact taxpayer funding for abortions, defying the teachings of the Catholic Church, of which she is a member. ? With promises of utopia, she drives massive legislation deals through Congress by stiff arm twisting, knowing she and her allies will profit at the expense of the electorate. It will be clear after reading She's the Boss that the party works for Pelosi.