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morningtide 's review for:
informative
medium-paced
I added this book to my TBR back when I read The Power Broker by Robert A. Caro, as I tend to go down a bit of a rabbit hole when I read nonfiction, and I got interested in knowing more about Tammany Hall. (After reading Machine-Made, I have added books about Al Smith, Frances Perkins and the history of the republican party...this is not a sustainable habit.)
This book is definitely a lot of history, and was more compelling than I expected. While it is definitely still a deep dive on the history of Tammany Hall, I felt like there were certain things we moved through so quickly when I was wanting more, or felt like I missed something. However, coming into the book knowing almost nothing about Tammany (except hearing it referred to in passing, always with negative connotations, basically) I definitely learned a lot.
The book does also focus heavily on Irish immigration, which I found just as interesting. Since I picked up this book to learn more about local political history, it was a bonus to learn about what is my own heritage as well. I think the most interesting part for me is just finding the quotes of different politicians about different issues and finding I could apply almost the exact same outlook you see today. How Irish immigrants were viewed, how the potato famine was viewed...and the exact same things are being said about current immigrants or the handling of the covid-19 pandemic. History really does repeat itself (in detail.)
I had always heard about Tammany Hall as basically a mob, a collection of men looking for power and buying votes to earn that power. Maybe it was because this book looked at Tammany with a more empathetic view, but I struggled to continue to judge the political machine by "buying" its votes by helping the people that lived there. I cannot think of any politics that did not involve "power brokering", and to see the machine earn its votes by giving jobs to its constituents and coal to people who needed it... it was more refreshing than seeing they just made the rich richer. I am definitely intrigued in learning more about Tammany Hall in detail.
__________________
“I never ask a hungry man about his past. I feed him not because he is good, but because he needs food.” Traditional reformers, immersed in Anglo-Protestant notions of worthiness rather than simple need, sought to change character and culture as part of a contractlike relationship with the poor and distressed.
____________________
Every time they found a job for an unemployed immigrant, every time they arranged for a delivery of coal to a struggling widow, they did more than win a vote. Wittingly or not, they challenged the transatlantic Anglo-Protestant culture of rugged individualism and minimalist government.
___________________
This book is definitely a lot of history, and was more compelling than I expected. While it is definitely still a deep dive on the history of Tammany Hall, I felt like there were certain things we moved through so quickly when I was wanting more, or felt like I missed something. However, coming into the book knowing almost nothing about Tammany (except hearing it referred to in passing, always with negative connotations, basically) I definitely learned a lot.
The book does also focus heavily on Irish immigration, which I found just as interesting. Since I picked up this book to learn more about local political history, it was a bonus to learn about what is my own heritage as well. I think the most interesting part for me is just finding the quotes of different politicians about different issues and finding I could apply almost the exact same outlook you see today. How Irish immigrants were viewed, how the potato famine was viewed...and the exact same things are being said about current immigrants or the handling of the covid-19 pandemic. History really does repeat itself (in detail.)
I had always heard about Tammany Hall as basically a mob, a collection of men looking for power and buying votes to earn that power. Maybe it was because this book looked at Tammany with a more empathetic view, but I struggled to continue to judge the political machine by "buying" its votes by helping the people that lived there. I cannot think of any politics that did not involve "power brokering", and to see the machine earn its votes by giving jobs to its constituents and coal to people who needed it... it was more refreshing than seeing they just made the rich richer. I am definitely intrigued in learning more about Tammany Hall in detail.
__________________
“I never ask a hungry man about his past. I feed him not because he is good, but because he needs food.” Traditional reformers, immersed in Anglo-Protestant notions of worthiness rather than simple need, sought to change character and culture as part of a contractlike relationship with the poor and distressed.
____________________
Every time they found a job for an unemployed immigrant, every time they arranged for a delivery of coal to a struggling widow, they did more than win a vote. Wittingly or not, they challenged the transatlantic Anglo-Protestant culture of rugged individualism and minimalist government.
___________________