Rating: 
Summary: Errors Abound
Review: This is a spectacularly well put together book. Part biography and part public policy analysis with plenty of hindsight, it allows one to see a cross-section of the machines that used to dominate the big cities of the United States. Richard J. Daley exemplified this aspect of urban politics, rising as he did from the lowest ranks of the machine to hold the position of mayor for twenty-one years.Several things struck me about this book. First, the degree to which current mayor Richard M. Daley has followed through on his father's plans. The Chicago 21 urban renewal program has received a huge boost, albeit parsed out into smaller increments, and continues to keep the south side/State Street ghetto alive. He uses similar tactics in his bargaining with Springfield for state budget allowances; his anti-poverty programs tend to benefit the contractors instead of the poor. Second, with a few exceptions, the book is very objective. They never call the mayor a liar when he is being blatantly dishonest and I often wished that they would express at least a little outrage at his willingness to overlook police graft, racist lynchings, and corruption far surpassing that which is currently making waves in the Illinois political environment today. The man makes Betty Loren Maltese look practically civil! Yet the authors, who do highlight Daley's poor treatment of minorities and the impoverished, do so merely by enumerating the evidence against him, not with Royko-esque name-calling. A widespread criticism of this book is that the mayor's personal life is utterly absent and that the research involves mainly personal interviews and contemporary newspaper articles. It would have been nice to have had more information about his family, but Daley went to great pains to shield them from his public life until they were old enough to participate in it themselves. It also bears mentioning that the University of Illinois at Chicago has the complete archive of Daley's papers, but that the Daley family has blocked any public access to them whatsoever. Until this changes, this is simply the best book you will find on the subject.
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