To Be Mayor of New York: Ethnic Politics in the City

by Chris McNicle and Chris McNickle

Book Overview

From Tammany Hall to the election of David Dinkins, To Be Mayor of New York offers insights into the effect of ethnic competition on the demise of urban political machines.

Beginning with a colorful assessment of New York City's Tammany Hall as it existed in the late nineteenth century, McNickle traces the effect of the arrival of large numbers of Jewish and Italian immigrants -and later black and Puerto Rican migrants- on the Irish-dominated...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0231076363
• ISBN13: 9780231076364
• Release Date: April 1993
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Length: 403 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.3" x 9.3"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

An Insiders View of NYC Political History

This book is definitely a classic book in detaling the history of New York City politics and the role different ethnic groups played in politics. It is clear that McNickle did a great deal of research in putting together the electoral data for municipal elections going back 100 years. One of the themes of the book is the constant fight between organizational candidates and reform candidates and how many politicians carry the reform banner when it suits them. Robert Wagner,Ed Koch and Mario Cuomo are good examples of politicians who have been able to dance with the reformer and the machine, sometimes simultaneously. This book also gives a very good history of the labor movement in NYC, the rise and fall of the Liberal party and how national political trends affected the local political scene. McNickle write a second edition as the last threee mayoral elections and this years mayoral campaign would provide a great deal of material to continue talking about ethnic coalitions, reform vs machine, and labor unions in politics. Today's political scene is definitely more complicated than it once was even although many of the themes mentioned in this book still apply. As a participant in many NYC campaigns this book certainly puts many things into perspective. To Be Mayor of New York is a smooth read and very well written and researched. I highly recommend it.

Must read for a New Yorker, resident or not

To Be Mayor is an excellent story of the social and ethnic politics of the most diverse city in the world. To Be Mayor provides the reader will a behind the scenes feeling of the races for Mayor. This book is a must read for anyone who is a New Yorker who thinks they are a New Yorker. The book povides the reader with a new prospective to interpret city politics, in a city where the politics is almost as important as the news itself