Boss Tweed: The Rise and Fall of the Corrupt Pol Who Conceived the Soul of Modern New York

Among the monumental characters who ascended to renown and influence in the history of American politics, few are more fascinating than Boss Tweed; and few working historians could record in more vivid detail his astonishing career than Kenneth D. Ackerman, who in his two previous books has established himself as an investigative historian of the first order. This vibrant, accessible, and altogether captivating new work, Boss Tweed, is a biography of the legendary figure who "bribed the state legislature, fixed elections, skimmed money from city contractors, and diverted public funds on a massive scale." During his reign at Tammany Hall and then in a variety of elected posts, including as state senator, Tweed wielded almost total control over New York State and City politics, before his unparalleled zealotry and remorseless disregard for the law led to his imprisonment. Yet, as Ackerman shows, Tweed's positive political contributions have been largely overlooked! . From one of the most talented new historians to have emerged in recent years comes this thrilling story of William Marcy Tweed, the master manipulator who tried to make all of New York the instrument of his own ruthless ambitions, and succeeded-for a time. Numerous historic photographs are also featured.

For historians, Tweed "is worth his weight in gold" (New York Times). Ackerman, who has written previous books on Gilded Age excesses, focuses on the years after 1870 when Tweed hopscotched between court and jail. Critics agree that Tweed, his cronies, and the crusading journalists responsible for his spectacular downfall come alive. Colorful details and a clear-eyed approach to both Tweed’s great leadership and even greater crimes highlight his opportunist philosophy and antics, though his formative years remain a mystery. A poor sense of chronology, combined with failures to address revisionist claims that Tweed was an "honest grafter" and examine his effect on the "soul of modern New York," weaken the book. Despite these flaws, Boss Tweed is an excellent history with modern-day parables.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

Starred Review. William Marcy Tweed didn't invent graft, but he rigged elections and stole from the public on an unprecedented scale, gaining a stranglehold on New York City and amassing a vast personal fortune. By the early 1870s, he and his "ring" had skimmed between $25 and $40 million from the municipal treasury, a staggering amount even in an era notorious for robber barons and market manipulators. Ackerman, the author of The Gold Ring: Jim Fisk, Jay Gould, and Black Friday 1869, a book about two other Gilded Age scoundrels, deftly chronicles Tweed's epic rise and ultimate disgrace, giving us a nuanced portrait of the "Boss." Early in his career, Tweed brilliantly recognized that he could win power by mobilizing New York's teeming working-class and immigrant wards. Through patronage and largesse, Tweed recruited an army of ballot-box stuffers who helped install his cronies in office, allowing him to award jobs and contracts to friends while punishing enemies. Tweed's ring borrowed vast amounts on the city's tab and spent lavishly on such public projects as Central Park, making Tweed "the city's grand benefactor, Santa Claus with a diamond pin." But while Ackerman gives Tweed his due, describing how the Boss's machine aided the poor and helped modernize a crowded, chaotic city, the author is too clear-eyed to present his subject as a latter-day Robin Hood. Ackerman's Boss Tweed robbed everyone-and kept plenty for himself. And ultimately, Tweed's corruption and fiscal recklessness had crippling consequences for the city long after he died, penniless, in jail. In the end, this book is not only a compelling look at the colorful yet ruthless man who invented the big city political machine, it is also the gripping story of how dedicated newspapermen and zealous reformers brought down a notorious kingpin.
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Ackerman previously regaled readers with Gilded Age shenanigans (The Gold Ring: Jim Fisk, Jay Gould, and Black Friday, 1869, 1988) and now capitalizes on another of the era's memorable rogues: William Tweed. An associate's eulogy after Tweed died in a New York City jail in 1878--that "Tweed was not an honest politician, but a level one"--bespeaks another side to Tweed's story than his gargantuan graft would imply. Ackerman alludes to positive points in Tweed's defense, such as his interest in acculturating immigrants and getting things built. But Tweed's notoriety stems from his vertiginous downfall, which Ackerman narrates with an accent on the political and press frenzy that surrounded it. Triggered by a city clerk with a conscience, whose evidence of systematic swindles wound its way to a then-insignificant New York Times, the scandal was blood in the water to rival politicians and to Thomas Nast, whose caricatures remain the indelible image of the corpulent Tweed. For connoisseurs of corruption, Ackerman shrewdly mixes together the reformist zeal and political opportunism that marked Tweed's career. Gilbert Taylor
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