William L. Riordon – författare

Plunkitt of Tammany HallA Series of Very Plain Talks on Very Practical PoliticsWilliam L. Riordan “Nobody thinks of drawin’ the distinction between honest graft and dishonest graft.” This classic work offers the unblushing, unvarnished wit and wisdom of one of the most fascinating figures ever to play the American political game and win. George Washington Plunkitt rose from impoverished beginnings to become ward boss of the Fifteenth Assembly District in New York, a key player in the powerhouse political team of Tammany Hall, and, not incidentally, a millionaire. In a series of utterly frank talks given at his headquarters (Graziano’s bootblack stand outside the New York County Court House), he revealed to a sharp-eared and sympathetic reporter named William L. Riordan the secrets of political success as practiced and perfected by him and fellow Tammany Hall titans. The result is not only a volume that reveals more about our political system than does a shelfful of civics textbooks, but also an irresistible portrait of a man who would feel happily at home playing ball with today’s lobbyists and king makers, trading votes for political and financial favors. Doing for twentieth-century America what Machiavelli did for Renaissance Italy, and as entertaining as it is instructive, Plunkitt of Tammany Hall is essential reading for those who prefer twenty-twenty vision to rose-colored glasses in viewing how our government works and why. With an Introduction by Peter Quinnand a New Afterword

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, first published in 1905, provides an extraordinary account of the political corruption and profiteering of George Washington Plunkitt, a long-time district leader in the New York Democratic Party's political machine in Manhattan. Reporter William L. Riordon immortalized Plunkitt's banter and bluster by reorganizing the raconteur's impromptu speeches, conversations, and interviews into discourses published first in New York newspapers and later in this book. Here, for the first time, Kevin W. Hula and Douglas B. Harris present a fully annotated edition of Riordon's work. A new introductory chapter and introductions for each of Plunkitt's discourses highlight the book's place in American political history and the machine era in which Plunkitt lived. Plunkitt describes Tammany's operations, how machine politicians profited, and his views on why political reformers were curses on America. This annotated edition of Plunkitt of Tammany Hall makes the classic political tale accessible for a new generation of readers, students of politics, and scholars of the progressive era.

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, first published in 1905, provides an extraordinary account of the political corruption and profiteering of George Washington Plunkitt, a long-time district leader in the New York Democratic Party's political machine in Manhattan. Reporter William L. Riordon immortalized Plunkitt's banter and bluster by reorganizing the raconteur's impromptu speeches, conversations, and interviews into discourses published first in New York newspapers and later in this book. Here, for the first time, Kevin W. Hula and Douglas B. Harris present a fully annotated edition of Riordon's work. A new introductory chapter and introductions for each of Plunkitt's discourses highlight the book's place in American political history and the machine era in which Plunkitt lived. Plunkitt describes Tammany's operations, how machine politicians profited, and his views on why political reformers were curses on America. This annotated edition of Plunkitt of Tammany Hall makes the classic political tale accessible for a new generation of readers, students of politics, and scholars of the progressive era.

William L. Riordon's compiling and embroidering of Boss Plunkitt's boastful comments on machine politics constitutes a minor classic in American social history. in an introduction to this edition of the political boss's remarks, James S. Olson, chairman of the history department at Sam Houston State University, and James W. Mooney of American University engage in a provocative exchange over how the boss mentality as Plunkitt expressed it is to be judged. Thereby they complicate and enrich a reader's perception of the practical devices and ethical ambiguities of popular politics."Tammany Hall was far more than a disinterested detached city government for several million poor, working-class New Yorkers. It was also a successful city government delivering municipal services, a social welfare agency assisting the immigrant poor and their children in adjusting to the new country, a political interest group giving working-class people at least a modest voice in an economic world increasingly dominated by rich corporations."--James S. Olson "In essence: the machine politicos, for all their genuine resonance with their constituencies, saw the average voter as a creature of appetite; the scientific progressives, for all their hauteur, expected something better of the public and were prepared to work for it."--James W. Mooney