The Great Mayor: Fiorello La Guardia and the Making of the City of New York [Hardcover]

Alyn Brodsky (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 23, 2003

In The Great Mayor, author Alyn Brodsky presents the first comprehensive and accessible biography of Fiorello H. La Guardia. Prior to becoming New York’s pre-eminent mayor, La Guardia was a distinguished U.S. congressman, a commander of the U.S. air forces during World War I, and a rambunctious member of the U.S. Consular Service. La Guardia was one of our nation’s most incorruptible politicians ever, a paradigm of honesty and virtue in American political history.

As a progressive Republican New York congressman, La Guardia supported women’s suffrage, child labor regulations, and was a major proponent of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, establishing himself as an energetic, effective, and dedicated politician. He brought these same qualities to his three terms as New York City’s mayor, transforming the five independent boroughs into today’s unified city. He expanded relief and social services, undertook the construction of parks and public housing, updated mass transit, cleaned up corrupt city departments, and much more.

Brodsky effectively captures the boundless energy and zest for accomplishment that led La Guardia to leave his indelible print on our nation’s political history and, most significantly, today’s modern New York City.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Brodsky has written the life of a New York City figure that ought to appeal to readers everywhere. Brodsky (Grover Cleveland) admires the half-Italian, half-Jewish congressman and mayor ("the last great paradigm of honesty and incorruptibility in American political history to date"), but he doesn't neglect La Guardia's (1882-1947) faults, which became especially apparent during his third term as mayor amid the turmoil of WWII. Brodsky has mined rich material about his subject's formative years in locales as diverse as North Dakota, the Arizona Territory and Italy (La Guardia settled in New York City, where he had been born, in 1906). Despite his disdain for social niceties, his outspokenness on political issues and his unimposing physical stature (5'2" and rotund), La Guardia reached the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican from a Tammany-dominated district in 1912, standing for open immigration, equal treatment for minorities, harsh measures against political corruption and other progressive measures. La Guardia interrupted his political career to serve in the military during WWI, flying combat missions and serving as a liaison with the Italians and other U.S. allies. A hero upon his return, he eventually served another decade in Congress. Brodsky outlines a rich, varied career that culminated with "the Little Flower" 's election as New York's mayor in 1933. Brodsky's admiration for his subject-to whom, he says, New York City owes its present greatness-remains intact, despite the mayor's increasingly authoritarian nature as he consolidated power: "many considered New York's mayor the nation's mayor." 16 pages of b&w photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

LaGuardia was mayor of New York City from 1933 to 1945, an unprecedented series of three, four-year terms--and this after serving seven terms in Congress. Brodsky begins with LaGuardia's early years, then recounts his years in Congress and in the Army Air Service during World War I, and follows his return to Congress before becoming New York's mayor. A paradigm of honesty and incorruptibility, LaGuardia was credited with breaking the grip of "boss" politics, replacing an antiquated city charter, and expanding relief and social services. He undertook a program of slum clearance, park construction, public housing, and road and bridge building "that literally recast the city physically." LaGuardia also launched what Brodsky calls "a vigorous assault on the city's racketeers and crooked politicians." The mayor's support of President Roosevelt's New Deal, Brodsky posits, was repaid by extensive federal funding for New York in the Depression-ridden 1930s. Both LaGuardia the man and the politician come alive in this absorbing biography, which will have a 16-page black-and-white photo insert. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 544 pages
• Publisher: Truman Talley Books; 1st edition (May 23, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312287372
• ISBN-13: 978-0312287375
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #409,103 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thorough and entertaining, October 15, 2003

By 

teresa madigan (san diego, ca United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Great Mayor: Fiorello La Guardia and the Making of the City of New York (Hardcover)

I have never been to New York and confess that I don't know as much as I should about the history of that great city. I was very pleased to find that Alyn Brodsky's book was not only educational but entertaining. I admit there were some parts that probably would appeal more to scholars and historians than to an average reader, but overall the book was fascinating. Mr. Brodsky did an excellent job presenting not only the huge number of facts and figures, but also the human, personal sides of the mayor and his people.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Above Average Biography, August 9, 2004

By 

K. I. Shin (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Great Mayor: Fiorello La Guardia and the Making of the City of New York (Hardcover)

Alyn Brodsky's "The Great Mayor" seems ambivalent about the life and career of Fiorello La Guardia. Brodsky at times leans too favorably upon the often irratic behavior of the Little Flower in the consular service, in Congress, and in City Hall. Nevertheless, his portrayal of Fiorello's decline both politically and personally is quite frank and adds dimension to this well-researched and well-documented work.
A real treat that Brodsky's book offers is a perceptive political history of the City of New York and its characters. Tammany Hall receives a drubbing, as does Robert Moses, the venerated creator of the New York parks system.
Unfortunately, the book is poorly edited and suffers from a generous sprinkling of obvious syntax errors. A truly magnificent biography would not have seen such missteps. In the end, "The Great Mayor" remains a noteworthy contribution to the body of works about New York's history. It deserves to be read - and will be read moderately quickly - by fans of the Big Apple.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fiorello Was An All Time Great, September 30, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Great Mayor: Fiorello La Guardia and the Making of the City of New York (Hardcover)

Alyn Brodsky has written arguably the definitive biography on Fiorello LaGuardia. The biography is very well written, and if you are interested in New York City and municipal history, an entertaining one to boot.
LaGuardia was a progressive Republican very much in the vein of Theordore Roosevelt and Robert LaFollette. Fiorello rallied against large corporate and governmental interests, and defended the lower economic classes. He was incorruptable. LaGuardia was an energenic human dynamo, and acted in what he thought were the best interests of those he was elected to represent. This he did when he was in the House of Representatives, representing at seperate times two Manhattan Congressional districts for 14 years, and later when he was Mayor of New York for 12 years. Corruption, graft, unfair profiteering, and particularly, exploitation of recent immigrants to the U.S. were hateful things to him.
Oh yes, he was onery, exasperating, stepped on a lot of toes, and could be quite the bully. Since his desired ends were for the public good and not personal gratification or ego building, most people, excluding his enemies, saw his antics more as amusing than derisive.
In this post 9/11 period, it is fun and educational to remember and learn that Rudy Giuliani was not New York City's only great mayor. In fact, Rudy often cited "The Little Flower" as the mayor he wished most to emulate. Kudos to Alyn Brodsky for his literary effort, and bravo to Mayor LaGuardia for his super human efforts and accomplishments.