The Fall of Bossism

The Fall of Bossism PDF Author: George Edward Vickers
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Philadelphia (Pa.)
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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The Fall of Bossism

The Fall of Bossism PDF Author: George Edward Vickers
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Philadelphia (Pa.)
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description


Bossism and Reform in a Southern City

Bossism and Reform in a Southern City PDF Author: James Duane Bolin
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813193648
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 307

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William Frederick "Billy" Klair (1875-1937) was the undisputed czar of Lexington, Kentucky, for decades. As political boss in a mid-sized, southern city, he faced problems strikingly similar to those of large cities in the North. As he watched the city grow from a sleepy market town of 16,000 residents to a bustling, active urban center of over 50,000, Klair saw changes that altered not just Lexington but the nation and the world: urbanization, industrialization, and immigration. But Klair did not merely watch these changes; like other political bosses and social reformers, he actively participated in the transformation of his city. As a political boss and a practitioner of what George Washington Plunkitt of Tammany Hall referred to as "honest graft," Klair applied lessons of organization, innovation, manipulation, power, and control from the machine age to bring together diverse groups of Lexingtonians and Kentuckians as supporters of a powerful political machine. James Duane Bolin also examines the underside of the city, once known as the Athens of the West. He balances the postcard view of Bluegrass mansions and horse farms with the city's well-known vice district, housing problems, racial tensions, and corrupt politics. With the reality of life in Lexington as a backdrop, the career of Billy Klair provides as a valuable and engaging case study of the inner workings of a southern political machine.

Capital, Coercion, and Crime

Capital, Coercion, and Crime PDF Author: John Thayer Sidel
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804737460
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
Drawing on in-depth research in the Philippines, this book reveals how local forms of political and economic monopoly may thrive under conditions of democracy and capitalist development.

When Bosses Ruled Philadelphia

When Bosses Ruled Philadelphia PDF Author: Peter McCaffery
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271040572
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
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 Unheralded Triumph

The Unheralded Triumph PDF Author: Jon C. Teaford
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 142143525X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 498

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Originally published in 1984. In 1888 the British observer James Bryce declared "the government of cities" to be "the one conspicuous failure of the United States." During the following two decades, urban reformers would repeat Bryce's words with ritualistic regularity; nearly a century later, his comment continues to set the tone for most assessments of nineteenth-century city government. Yet by the end of the century, as Jon Teaford argues in this important reappraisal, American cities boasted the most abundant water supplies, brightest street lights, grandest parks, largest public libraries, and most efficient systems of transportation in the world. Far from being a "conspicuous failure," municipal governments of the late nineteenth century had successfully met challenges of an unprecedented magnitude and complexity. The Unheralded Triumph draws together the histories of the most important cities of the Gilded Age—especially New York, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Baltimore—to chart the expansion of services and the improvement of urban environments between 1870 and 1900. It examines the ways in which cities were transformed, in a period of rapid population growth and increased social unrest, into places suitable for living. Teaford demonstrates how, during the last decades of the nineteenth century, municipal governments adapted to societal change with the aid of generally compliant state legislatures. These were the years that saw the professionalization of city government and the political accommodation of the diverse ethnic, economic, and social elements that compose America's heterogeneous urban society. Teaford acknowledges that the expansion of urban services dangerously strained city budgets and that graft, embezzlement, overcharging, and payroll-padding presented serious problems throughout the period. The dissatisfaction with city governments arose, however, not so much from any failure to achieve concrete results as from the conflicts between those hostile groups accommodated within the newly created system: "For persons of principle and gentlemen who prized honor, it seemed a failure yet American municipal government left as a legacy such achievements as Central Park, the new Croton Aqueduct, and the Brooklyn Bridge, monuments of public enterprise that offered new pleasures and conveniences for millions of urban citizens."

The Citizens Bulletin

The Citizens Bulletin PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Cincinnati (Ohio)
Languages : en
Pages : 774

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The Public

The Public PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 750

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The Social Sciences

The Social Sciences PDF Author: Chicago Public Library
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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The Social Sciences

The Social Sciences PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 390

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The American Commonwealth

The American Commonwealth PDF Author: James Bryce Bryce (Viscount)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : United States
Languages : en
Pages : 776

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