Richard J. Daley: Politics, Race, and the Governing of Chicago (Inter-American Dialogue Book) - Softcover

Biles, Roger

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0875805663 ISBN 13: 9780875805665

Publisher: Northern Illinois University Press, 1995

Synopsis

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 rights, integration, race riots, fiscal crisis, housing, suburban flight, urban renewal—Daley conducted Chicago's business with a steadfast resolve to withstand the many changes that threatened to engulf his city. Richard J. Daley portrays one of the most prominent American mayors in a balanced perspective and sheds new light on his place in urban history.

About this title

From the Back Cover

From his first election in 1955 to 1976, Mayor Richard J. Daley dominated Chicago's political landscape. The story of Daley is also the story of Chicago. Faced with issues confronting many American cities in the twentieth century - civil rights, integration, race riots, fiscal crisis, housing, suburban flight, urban renewal - Daley conducted Chicago's business with a steadfast resolve to withstand the many changes that threatened to engulf his city. In particular, his atavistic approach to racial issues, typified in his opposition to Martin Luther King's campaign to desegregate schools and housing, moderated social change. Through such policies shaping the development of Chicago, he resisted social forces and preserved his city, effectively slowing the pace of change. Even as Daley resisted social change, he was building a new Chicago that under his guidance became known as "the city that works". Daley earned this title for the city by championing civic infrastructure projects that modernized the skyline and improved the quality of life for those who lived and worked there. On the national front, in the meantime, Daley was gaining a reputation. Though as a fellow Irish Catholic Daley had enjoyed high visibility for his support of Kennedy's presidential campaign, it was not until 1968 that his national image as a tough law-and-order mayor emerged fully. During the nationally televised 1968 Democratic Convention, his seeming tolerance of police brutality toward protesters outside the convention hall and his overall repression of dissent formed the public impression of him as a bully. It was an image, wrongly ascribed or not, that tainted the final years of his service to Chicago. RichardJ. Daley portrays one of the most prominent of American mayors in a balanced perspective and sheds new light on his place in urban history.

Reviews

An eternal figure in Chicago politics (his son governs the city today), Richard J. Daley would rule Carl Sandburg's ``City of the Big Shoulders'' with an increasingly heavy hand. Author Biles, who has also written on Daley's predecessor, Edward J. Kelly, portrays a politician eager to maintain the status quo, despite governing in a time of massive change. But as Daley's administration bridged the gap from the late 1940s to the 1960s, he had to face racial unrest and massive youth uprising. Daley took on Dr. Martin Luther King and Yippies, becoming, according to Biles, ever more ``ossified in his role as archdefender of the domestic order,'' and, as a consequence, he was unable to deal with the ghetto riots and the violence surrounding the 1968 Democratic convention. Daley's story turns particularly ugly when he orders police to ``shoot to kill'' during one riot, and when he usurps power at the 1968 convention. Biles doesn't just focus on local politics, showing Daley in the role of federal kingmaker as well. In 1968, Daley worked fruitlessly behind the scenes to prod Edward Kennedy to run for president, and the mayor's refusal to back Adlai Stevenson in 1964 would be a perpetual sore spot between the two. Readers will be fascinated by the detailed inner workings of the Chicago political machines, rife with patronage. But as the subtitle suggests, this is a political biography and as such fails to shed much light on the man and his more personal motivations. Photos.

Copyright 1995 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Northern Illinois University Press
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0875805663
• ISBN 13: 9780875805665
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 302