Customer Reviews

American Pharaoh: Mayor Richard J. Daley - His Battle for Chicago and the Nation

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Cohen and Taylor have written both a masterful piece of investigative journalism and a captivating political biography. In many ways, this book should be required reading for anyone doing college or graduate level research in the fields of American urban or domestic political science or history. Almost like Finley Peter Dunne's MISTER DOOLEY--which it often quotes--this volume takes you inside the Chicago Democratic machine and shows just how omnipotent the organization was during Daley's tenure at the helm, not without an occasional touch of humor and irony. As its subtitle promises, the book also places Daley and his machine in the context of national (and Illionis) politics, over which they had such enormous influence, especially during the late 1950s and all through the 1960s.

The authors paint a portrait of Daley that shows his enormous personal complexity--a devout Catholic and loyal family man who did not hesitate to engage in the most bare-fisted power politics or work to capitalize on the basest human instincts. While I tend to agree with other reviewers that the book focusses a bit heavily on racial matters during the Daley mayoralty, they played a major role during this period and Daley's attempt to balance the competing interests of white ethnics and black citizens ultimately undermined the absolute authority of the Chicago Democratic machine. I disagree with reviewers who say that the authors were too anti-Daley; I feel they made an honest effort to credit him for the considerable accomplishments of his tenure--including the preservation of Downtown Chicago as a going concern when so many other rust belt cities in the Midwest and Great Lakes area were going under (e.g., Detroit, St. Louis, Cleveland, Buffalo, and Pittsburgh). They make clear, however, the enormous price that was paid for his accomplishments, including the subversion of democracy and the exacerbation of racial tensions in Chicago.

Born and raised in Chicago, I have always been fascinated by the personal life and public career of Richard J. Daley, arguably the city's greatest mayor whose son Richard now serves in that office. Years ago, in his book about Daley, Mike Royko suggested at least some of the parameters within which Cohen and Taylor now analyze "The Boss." They provide a wealth of information. I would have rated this biography higher had the authors probed more deeply into much of that material inorder to answer so many questions I still have about Daley.

For example, what do Daley's successes and failures as a public servant reveal about the political and social worlds in which they occurred? During the years he served as mayor, could he have achieved these same successes without maintaining absolute control of the city's political system? What did Daley share in common with those in control of the Chicago syndicate? To what extent were there strategic alliances with them? Why? If Daley was as corrupt as so many have claimed, why has no incontrovertible evidence of that corruption been presented?

The authors have much to say about Daley's relationship with Chicago's black community. This was an uneasy, at times hostile relationship. To what extent was Daley's leadership as mayor a reflection of the community (Bridgeport) in which he was born and raised? Did he hate blacks? Did he fear them? Or is there another explanation of his attitude toward them? Ancient pharaohs were on occasion benevolent to those whom they viewed as inferior as were, more recently, plantation owners in the Deep South. Perhaps Cohen and Taylor had this in mind when they selected their title.

As I recall Daley, he was a master of negotiation when seeking to achieve his objectives but never hesitated to be ruthless whenever it served his purposes. As county chairman, he once summoned an immensely popular incumbent mayor to his office and then, after letting him cool his heals, informed him that he would not seek re-election. Daley was now ready to assume that office. I wish the authors had been more objective when analyzing what I would characterize as Daley's pragmatism.

These are some of the questions which American Pharaoh raises in my mind. Perhaps there will be other books (yet to be written) which attempt to answer them. Nonetheless, I am grateful to Cohen and Taylor for helping me to understand better than I did before one of the 20th century's most fascinating political leaders.

Speaking as a former department head of the Chicago Housing Authority for ten years from 1945 to 1955 and as a long time professor of urban studies and social welfare at Loyola University of Chicago, may I say that American Pharaoh is the best and most faithful book to have been published about Mayor Daley that I have yet seen.

Certainly from the point of view of those who believe that public housing was and can be a most worthwhile contribution to the US urban scene, this is an indispensable piece of history.

It tells what public housing was in the twenty years when Elizabeth Wood administered the program, how it served working poor families - most of whom were mom and pop families. It shows how congregate housing could provide good shelter for families both on a separate and an integrated basis. Likewise it describes the machinations which relieved her of her job. But most important it tells of the twenty years of the Daley administration which because of its hostility to public housing put in charge of the Chicago Housing Authority a series of mediocre, incompetent, and most of all uninterested executive directors who allowed and virtually guided public housing to its present straits, where it is today the housing of last resort.

Finally it does what is equally rare. It shows how the 1969 Gautreaux case, the US Supreme Court decision that was calculated to help public housing and racial integration, has actually had minimal results. Moreover, the case has resulted in a situation where virtually no more public housing has been built since 1969.

Jim Fuerst, Chicago, IL

I picked up this book after reading the very positive review in the Sunday New York Times. I knew little about Daley beyond the 1968 Convention. The authors succeed at telling the story not only of this one very intriguing man but also of how the modern city of Chicago emerged during his two decades in office. I would highly recommend the book to anyone interested in biography or modern American history, or of course, Chicago. The book is heavily sourced, both to local news accounts -- something which has been inexplicably criticized by other reviewers in this column -- as well as over a hundred interviews conducted by the authors (e.g., William Daley, Daniel Rostenkowski). This is a praiseworthy and fascinating effort by the writers to tell the story as it happened, not as various political or religious viewpoints would like it to be told.

It was an easy read, although I frequently looked ahead to see when it
was over! It was a book that was detailed in some areas and very
shallow in others [I knew a lot about housing but less about the man,
only what he did]. More interviews with people that worked with
Daley, both good and bad relationships, would have helped to develop
his character. Sometime when people that were close to him and are
quoted it was only in snipets. I would have liked to more
conversations with Leon Depres, Ed Hanarahan, David Stahl, J.Johnson
[publications], Judge Morovitz, Sen. Paul Simon, Jesse Jackson, etc.
Those interviews would have added more to explaining Daley as a man
rather than his role as King. [maybe a another book]. I grew up in
his era and continue to live here. My father and mother were
patronage workers and one of Daley's many wakes was my father's in
'72. I go to the same church as his son, the present mayor, and one of
my grade school mates was the present mayor's chief of staff. All that
doesn't qualify me to be a critic but adds to my insight and
reflections of how I saw life under Richard J. and how the book
portrays events. I never thought he was anything but THE MAN because
he had the POWER but this book shows what his POWER did and didn't do.
It was too much control and too much about ego. He was there to win
and winning was based upon his goals only. It was only in extreme
defeat that he would choose how to show himself as the winner! The
Irish/catholic/democrat mantra is not as strong as it once was in
Chicago and it has changed from democrat to republican, where
convenient. The generations of Irish look back on when Daley had the
power as the good times and how he tried to keep the blacks in their
place. To many he was the hero and to those that are honest about it,
he was narrow minded, narcissistic and a American dictator. The book
does a nice job of reporting the times and if the reader has any bias
they can easily disagree with the portrayal but overall I'm glad I
spent the time to read all 600+ pages.

AMERICAN PHARAOH by Cohen and Taylor contains 614 pages and 16 pages of black and white (not glossy) photographs. The book focuses on Mr. Daley's technique of ensuring cooperation through the use of patronage jobs, and on Daley's methods for keeping black people segregated in black-only housing projects. Hundreds and hundreds of pages are devoted to race relations. However, topics relating to business development are given short shrift. Daley's methods for converting Chicago from its dilapidated state in the 1950s to the gleaming showpiece that it became in the 1970s receive only a few pages of writing. In this regard, AMERICAN PHARAOH is a strangely lopsided book.

PATRONAGE JOBS. Patronage jobs are distinguished from civil service jobs. Patronage jobs are awarded by ward bosses, while civil service jobs are not. The mayor preceding Daley (Martin Kennelly) was anti-patronage and had a war on patronage. He had insisted on using civil service exams in the hiring methods. Patronage workers are government workers who knew their jobs were at stake, unless they contributed time and money to election campaigns. (pages 92, 116, 121, 122). Chicago had 50 wards. Each ward was allotted a number of patronage jobs. For example, Daley's political base, the 11th ward, had 2,000 patronage jobs (p. 156). For any given branch of city government, from 50-75% might be patronage jobs. Each job applicant needed to document his precinct work, in applying for the job. For Daley's benefit, each patronage job was equivalent to getting ten free votes (p. 159).

PASSIVE HYPOCRACY. When faced with issues of segregation in schools or public housing, or violence in public housing, Daley responded with "vague expressions of sympathy," that is, with "passive hypocracy." Daley's passive hypocracy is described on pages 134, 172, 322, 340, 403, 410, 431, and 465.

WHY BLACKS VOTED FOR DALEY. Although Daley was against open housing and school integration, blacks voted for him because he handed out patronage jobs (p. 301-302, 339). What also helped Daley is that blacks accepted school segregation, as they didn't want their kids in hostile white schools (p. 437). Also, blacks (e.g., Kenneth Campbell) worked against school boycotts, while other blacks (e.g., Wendell Green) were apologists for the racist superintendent of public schools (Benjamin Willis) (p. 313-314).

DALEY BUILT BARRIERS TO KEEP SLUMS FROM EXPANDING. Daley used Ryan Expressway (7 lanes in each direction) to separate the white south side from the black belt (p. 188-189, 229). Daley razed 100 acres of slums in between the black belt and the Loop, and in its place built middle class apartments, with rents that would keep poor blacks away (Lake Meadows; Prairie Shores) (p. 176-177). These new apartments were built near important employers (Ill. Inst. Technology, Reese Hospital). In planning the Univ. Illinois at Chicago, Daley made certain that it was built in the Harrison-Halsted neighborhood, just west of the Loop. The goal was for the campus to act as a barrier between black housing to the west (Addams House) and the Loop. In ten years, Harrison-Halsted neighborhood became a white neighborhood (p. 224-233). Slums in Hyde Park (near Univ. Illinois) were razed and replaced with middle class private apartments (University Apartments). Once occupied, the average income in the area increased 70%. University Apts stood as a barrier between the University and the ghettos to the north.

BLACK VS. WHITE HOUSING PROJECTS. To ensure the desired location of new black housing projects, Daley selected his own executive (Alvin Rose) for the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA). In other words, to ensure that new housing projects would be black-only, Daley had them built only in black neighborhoods (p. 201). Massive housing projects were built in 1966. These were black-only (Hilliard, Ickes, Dearborn, Stateway, and Taylor) and white-only (Trumbull Park, Lathrop, Lawndale Gardens). The CHA kept separate waiting lists for the black projects and white projects (p. 331-334). The black housing projects were considered to be "filing cabinets for the poor" and were populated by a disproportionate number of single mothers (p. 183-188).

FUND-RAISING TECHNIQUES. To ensure that people would vote for his bond initiatives, Daley made certain to have them decided in low-turnout elections, that is, April elections, where he could count on votes from his patronage employees (p. 289). To ensure an increased sales tax, Daley side-stepped the voters in city elections, and made use of a loophole that allowed state legislature instead to vote for approval of the city tax. This resulted in more funds for an exposition center, airport, highways, and mass transit (p. 166).

DALEY'S ACCOMPLISHMENTS. In the years before Daley, Chicago was in the state of decline, with losses in manufacturing jobs. Sales in the Loop were plummeting (p. 164). Daley managed to get funding to improve city clinics, street lights, potholes, street sweeping, water fluoridation, paving roads (p. 167-169). Daley's contribution to O'Hare Airport was to convince the airlines to absorb the cost of operating and expanding the airport. O'Hare was the world's only self-supporting airport (taxes were not used) (p. 233-237). The Loop revival (1955 to 1970) included Prudential Building, Sears Tower, Equitable Building, Gateway Center, One and Two Illinois Center, Dirksen federal court, Kluczynski Building, Marina City (p. 292-293, 504-505). To ensure success in the Loop revival, Daley hired talented "whiz kids," not patronage workers (p. 373-377). McCormick Place is another Daley accomplishment (p. 293, 433, 510).

ELIZABETH WOOD. The Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) was established in 1937, and the mayor at the time (Kelly) appointed Elizabeth Wood. Wood's philosophy was "managed integration" where blacks would be moved into a white project, but not in numbers(10-15%) enough to inspire whites to move away, and to make sure that when a white moved out he was replaced with another white. Wood tried to convince CHA to admit blacks to all-white projects. Also, her plan was to admit only higher quality blacks to housing projects (and to refuse the criminal element). Wood refused to hire patronage workers. Eventually, Wood was forced out, and she moved to New York City. Of course, all of Wood's innovations were eliminated, resulting in a return to strictly all black and all white housing projects (p. 70, 101-109).

FRANCIS KEPPEL. Francis Keppel was U.S. commissioner for education. His job was to ensure compliance with Civil Rights Act of 1964, which required integration standards be met in order to receive federal money for schools. If Chicago failed to meet the integration standards, Chicago would lose $32 million. At this time, controversy surrounded these schools: Fenger (white only), Altgelt (black only), Orr (white only), and Marshall (black only). On Oct. 1, 1965, Keppel declared Chicago schools to be in non-compliance with Civil Rights Act. But Daley fought back by insisting on an investigation of Keppel, and by consulting President Johnson (LBJ). LBJ caved in to Daley's request because LBJ wanted Daley's support in the upcoming 1968 election. Keppel was then removed from his position as watchdog for the Civil Rights Act, and Daley got the federal money (p. 335-336, 350-353).

CONCLUSION. As is evident, most of the book is about race relations. If you need details of Daley's accomplishments relating to business, economic development, highways, transportation, manufacturing, and such, one might want to consult another source. For those interested in proceeding to a more detailed book, I might recommend CHICAGO POLITICS -- WARD BY WARD by David K. Fremon.

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.

This book is filled with wonderful political anecdotes and is very informative on the racial polarity in Chicago. Especially fascinating are Chicago Housing Authority chief Elizabeth Wood's valiant attempt to integrate public housing and Martin Luther King's crusade for open housing, both defeated by horrifically violent white opposition. A book for anyone interested in politics or racial issues.

I came to American Pharaoh with high hopes and, unfortunately, was disappointed. I grew up in a Chicago suburb, moved to the City, and even crossed party lines to vote for the son, Richard M. I was weaned on Chicago politics and truly hoped this book would capture the richness, hilarity and passion of Chicago politics, but it didn't.

Richard J. Daley was such a huge figure that he deserves a Robert Caro level biography, ala LBJ and Robert Moses. The authors Cohen and Taylor have painstakingly assembled the facts of Daley's reign, largely from newspapers it appears, but did not seize the spirit of the times. The authors also missed the opportunities to interview some of the critical witnesses, such as Thomas Keane, Daley's political partner, who died during the writing. This book feels as if it was written by people who moved to Chicago ten years after Daley and then tried to reassemble the story. This is a workmanlike history, but not a passionate one.

If you're a political junkie, you should consider this book. It has the facts, the chronology, and the players. However, you won't get to know the Mayor, only his deeds.

I am a Chicago resident, but I have no ties to the authors or any members of the Daley family.

This book was extremely well researched. I learned a great deal about the city's history from 1920 to 1975. The authors do a good job in depicting the racial issues that confronted Chicago politicians during that period. They interviewed people on all sides of the debate, including Daley insiders and some people who protested against Daley. Their comments about the mayor's efforts to balance the power of various racial and ethnic voting blocks are right on the money.

Some reviewers have criticized this book for being too cynical about Daley. My experiences here suggest the authors are correct.

the authors also have a sense of humor about some of the machine's antics. The book has a sense of fun about it that is helpful.