From his first election in 1955 to 1976, Mayor Richard J. Daley dominated Chicago's political landscape. A product of the Irish Catholic working class, Daley never lost touch with his roots as he rose through the Democratic Party machine--whose workings he perfected--to become a powerful and enduring political figure.
The story of Daley is also the story of Chicago. Faced with issues confronting many American cities in the twentieth century--civil...