Customer Reviews

Himself!: The Life and Times of Mayor Richard J. Daley

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Himself!"by Eugene Kennedy was written shorty after the death of it's subject,Chicago Mayor Richard J.Daley..Thus it should not come as a complete surprise that the author glossed over much of what was wrong with Daley and his long mayorship in favor of writing fluff...Still,the fluff IS entertaining,if not entirely truthful..Unlike more recent Daley biographies(Like the mammoth"American Pharoah"as an example)wherein every inch of the deceased mayor's life is gone over with a fine-toothed comb,"Himself!"is rather spare in it's dealing with the who and the what of the Daley career..Much of what Kennedy recounts is anecdotal,and few of the mayor's legions of enemies,notably writer and chicago newspaperman Mike Royko as an example,seem to have been consulted..But as a modern-day fable"Himself!"works rather well,documenting the man's rise from poverty,his political campaigns,his transformation of the Chicago skyline and some of his political battles..It is what one might call a "friendly" biography,rather than an objective one...

One problem that I do have with the book,however,is the spirit in which Kennedy seems to have approached this writing project..In the"introduction"the author expounds at length on the subject of "chieftainship"and its supposed application to Richard J.Daley..According to Kennedy a real"chieftain"need not be"perfect",nor fair,nor just,nor even concerned with doing the right thing so long as that one is strong,brutal,willing to to the "gutty"things that"need to be done"Given that Daley displayed hostility to those who disagreed with him,political brutality,was the man behind the bloody debacle that took place in Chicago during the 1968 democratic convention that was held there at that time,gave the notorious"shoot to kill"order during the Chicago riots,and was long accused of being anti-black and anti-poor,this odd notion proposed by author Kennedy about"chieftainship" hardly describes the sort of person who should be in charge of a hot dog stand,much less a city as great and as diverse as Chicago...

Still,despite its many short-comings,"Himself!"is an entertaining read.