Plunkitt of Tammany Hall - Couverture souple

Riordon, William L

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1578989949 ISBN 13 : 9781578989942

Editeur : Martino Fine Books, 2010

Synopsis

2010 Reprint of 1905 edition. "This brief classic of streetwise politics was published in 1905 after first appearing as a series of newspaper stories. George Washington Plunkitt was a sort of middle manager of one of the greatest political machines in U.S. history, Tammany Hall, which held power in New York City for much of the period between the Civil War and the 1930s. Most of its men died rich; a few spent their last years in jail. Plunkitt was one of the smarter and luckier ones. And he's remembered today by historians because he was the only one who talked, openly and on the record, to a reporter from the "New York Evening Post" named Riordan, about how to get and keep power. Riordan published Plunkitt's musings from his "office" (a shoeshine stand in the New York County Courthouse) straight, without comment or gloss, and preserving Plunkitt's speech rhythms and slang. The result is a little like hanging out with a Dickens character for an hour or so; the guy is colorful, unabashed when distinguishing between "honest graft and dishonest graft," and at times remarkably prescient: "The Democratic party of the nation ain't dead, though it's been givin' a lifelike imitation of a corpse for several years. . . . The trouble is that the party's been chasin' after theories and stayin' up nights readin' books instead of studyin' human nature and actin' accordin' . . . ." David Loftus.

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

Leopold Classic Library is delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive collection. As part of our on-going commitment to delivering value to the reader, we have also provided you with a link to a website, where you may download a digital version of this work for free. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. Whilst the books in this collection have not been hand curated, an aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir of literature. As a result of this book being first published many decades ago, it may have occasional imperfections. These imperfections may include poor picture quality, blurred or missing text. While some of these imperfections may have appeared in the original work, others may have resulted from the scanning process that has been applied. However, our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades. While some publishers have applied optical character recognition (OCR), this approach has its own drawbacks, which include formatting errors, misspelt words, or the presence of inappropriate characters. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with an experience that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic book, and that the occasional imperfection that it might contain will not detract from the experience.

Présentation de l'éditeur

This little classic, which was once titled "Honest Graft and Dishonest Graft," was written by George Plunkitt. It provides an entertaining if somewhat discouraging description of why politics is driven by money and why reformers are merely a flash in the pan. Another topic covered in the book, "The difference between honest graft and dishonest graft" is equally alive and well among modern politicians. A modern politician accused of exactly the type of real estate speculation Plunkitt uses as his example of "honest" graft occurred just a few years ago. The politician sat on a committee that determined the site of government project and bought up the land before the project was revealed to the public. When confronted his response was, "I didn't break any laws." As Plunkitt would have said, he was only practicing honest graft. Plunkitt was a crony of the infamous William M. "Boss" Tweed, who created and presided over a Democrat, ward based patronage form of government in the City of New York in the mid to late 19th century referred to then as and now "Tammany Hall." Plunkitt was one of his side-kicks who participated in all of the perks of office and had the ability to discuss his "work" with justifications worthy of the best wit of Mark Twain. It is no coincidence that this little jewel of amateur literature has remained in print for over 100 years.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Martino Fine Books
• Date d'édition: 2010
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1578989949
• ISBN 13: 9781578989942
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 112
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Friedensallee 273; Hamburg; 22763; Allemagne