Customer Reviews

Boss Tweed's New York (New Dimensions in History: Historical Cities)

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Most people's concept of William Meagher "Boss" Tweed, if any, is that of a manipulative mastermind who understood how to best bilk New Yorkers out of tens of millions of dollars, only to be brought down by a resentful member of his "ring" and the brilliant political cartoons of Thomas Nast. Seymour Mandelbaum's study, BOSS TWEED'S NEW YORK, reveals that this is a gross minimalization of the facts.

As the title suggests, it was New York's political and economic machinery of the times that made it easy for anyone to loot the public's coffers. Other politicians before Tweed took advantage of this vulnerability. In fact, many New Yorkers bitterly accepted that graft was a way of life. Mandelbaum goes to great pains to explain, however, that it was the degree to which Tweed took advantage of these weaknesses that set him apart from other thieves. But the more interesting aspect of BOSS TWEED'S NEW YORK is the discussion of Tweed's downfall. There was much more to it than Nast's wonderful cartoons or the informant's testimony. Again, as the title explains, it was New York itself--it's changing immigrant make-up, the proliferation of the press, and the compression of communication between political wards--that accelerated his decline.

The point is that the real subject of this book is New York City during and just after the Civil War years. It is a provocative and surprising account of the metropolis under unprecedented changes and pressures. Changes and pressures that came so quickly that the mighty Tweed could not keep up with them.

And this has been a gross minimalization of Mr. Mandelbaum's thesis. Read it for yourself. You will find it an invaluable addition to your collection of books on political or New York history.

Rocco Dormarunno, author of The Five Points

What I liked about this book is that it showed some similarities between New York's past and the American present. Just as Boss Tweed bought off a variety of factions through generous public spending, the politicians of the past decade have bought political support through spending increases and tax cuts. But then a political enemy of Tweed became city auditor, and discovered that the city's secret accounts showed excessive debt and widespread fraud. When these problems were publicized, bankers refused to lend to the city, causing the downfall of Tweed and a debt crisis. Just as the debt crises of recent years has led to worldwide austerity, New York's debt crisis caused a swing in the 1870s towards spending cuts and starved public services.

And like today's political world, New York's political world was anything but stable. Just as Americans have swung rapidly from right to left to right, New Yorkers swung from pro-Tammany to anti-Tammany.

Mandelbaum's analysis of causes is weaker than his description of factual events. He ties the city's problems to absence of communication: for example, the absence of reliable public transit made it hard to get from one side of the city to the other. He tries to argue that this weakness of communication made it hard for politicians to create citywide coalitions or appeal to citywide interests, which made it hard for politicians to govern effectively without buying political support the Tweed way (i.e. by subsidizing all factions). But I didn't find this analysis very persuasive; in our own time, special-interest gridlock has been common despite considerably improved communications.

This is a most exellent book. I had a report due and it saved me from certain failure. *~Peace~*