City of Ambition: FDR, La Guardia, and the Making of Modern New York - Hardcover

Williams, Mason B.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393066916 ISBN 13: 9780393066913

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2013

Synopsis

Two political titans forge a modern city and a vibrant public sector in this history of strong leadership at a time of national crisis.

City of Ambition is a brilliant history of the New Deal and its role in the making of modern New York City. The story of a remarkable collaboration between Franklin Roosevelt and Fiorello La Guardia, this is a case study in creative political leadership in the midst of a devastating depression. Roosevelt and La Guardia were an odd couple: patrician president and immigrant mayor, fireside chat and tabloid cartoon, pragmatic Democrat and reform Republican. But together, as leaders of America’s two largest governments in the depths of the Great Depression, they fashioned a route to recovery for the nation and the master plan for a great city.

Roosevelt and his “Brain Trust”―shrewd, energetic advisors such as Harold Ickes and Harry Hopkins―sought to fight the Depression by channeling federal resources through America’s cities and counties. La Guardia had replaced Tammany Hall cronies with policy experts, such as the imperious Robert Moses, who were committed to a strong public sector. The two leaders worked closely together. La Guardia had a direct line of communication with FDR and his staff, often visiting Washington carrying piles of blueprints. Roosevelt relied on the mayor as his link to the nation’s cities and their needs. The combination was potent. La Guardia’s Gotham became a laboratory for New Deal reform. Roosevelt’s New Deal transformed city initiatives into major programs such as the Works Progress Administration, which changed the physical face of the United States. Together they built parks, bridges, and schools; put the unemployed to work; and strengthened the Progressive vision of government as serving the public purpose.

Today everyone knows the FDR Drive as a main route to La Guardia Airport. The intersection of steel and concrete speaks to a pair of dynamic leaders whose collaboration lifted a city and a nation. Here is their story.

8 pages of photographs

About this title

About the Author

Mason B. Williams is the author of City of Ambition: FDR, LaGuardia, and the Making of Modern New York, an Editors’ Choice of the New York Times Book Review. He teaches at Williams College.

Reviews

The New Deal undeniably was characterized by a massive growth in the scope and power of the federal government. Yet many of the most ambitious and successful New Deal programs were jointly administered with local governments, especially in large urban areas. As this striking account shows, the shining light for federal and local cooperation was New York City. Williams is a historian specializing in urban politics. At the center of his narrative is the partnership between the two most powerful leaders of the country in the 1930s: President Roosevelt and Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, of New York. The ebullient and earthy LaGuardia and the patrician Roosevelt seemed an odd pair, but their partnership helped forge much of the modern infrastructure of New York, including such iconic landmarks as the Lincoln Tunnel and Henry Hudson Drive. Despite many detractors, both then and now, Williams convincingly asserts that these programs were vital and successful in stimulating a moribund economy and provided confirmation of the positive role that can be played by government at the local and national level. --Jay Freeman

Edition details

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0393066916
• ISBN 13: 9780393066913
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 512