Pendergast! (MISSOURI BIOGRAPHY SERIES) [Hardcover]

Lawrence H. Larsen (Author), Nancy J. Hulston (Author)

Book Description

Series: MISSOURI BIOGRAPHY SERIES | Publication Date: December 31, 1997

More than a half-century after the death of Kansas City's notorious political boss, Thomas J. Pendergast, the Pendergast name still evokes great interest and even controversy. Now, in this first full-scale biography of Pendergast, Lawrence H. Larsen and Nancy J. Hulston have successfully provided—through extensive research, including use of recently released prison records and previously unavailable family records—a clear look at the life of Thomas J. Pendergast.

Born in St. Joseph, Missouri, in 1872, Tom Pendergast moved to Kansas City around 1890 to work for his brother James, founder of the Pendergast "Goat" faction in Kansas City Democratic politics. In 1911, Pendergast became head of the Goats, and over the next fifteen years he created a powerful political machine that used illegal voting and criminal enforcers to gain power. Following a change in the city charter in 1925, Pendergast took control of Kansas City and ran it as his own personal business. In the 1930s, he received over $30 million annually from gambling, prostitution, and narcotics, putting him in the big leagues of American civic corruption. He also wielded great power in the National Democratic Party and started Harry S. Truman on the road to the presidency.

In this well-balanced biography, the authors examine Pendergast's rise to power, his successes as a political leader, his compassion for the destitute, and his reputation for keeping his word. They also examine Pendergast's character development and how his methods became more and more ruthless. Pendergast had no use for ideology in his "invisible government"—only votes counted.

In 1937 and 1938 the federal government broke the back of Pendergast's machine, convicting 259 of his campaign aides for vote fraud. In 1939 Pendergast, who was believed to be the largest bettor on horse racing in the United States, was jailed for income tax evasion, and he died in disgrace in 1945.

An insightful and comprehensive biography, Pendergast! will surely serve for years to come as the most thorough investigation of the life and infamous career of Tom Pendergast.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

One of the most notorious and powerful political bosses of the interwar period, Tom Pendergast ran the politics of Kansas City, Missouri, and oversaw a considerable empire of organized vice and crime. His political machine was sometimes able even to influence state politics and started Harry Truman on his rise to the presidency. Larsen (history, Univ. of Missouri, Kansas City) and Hulston (director of archives, Univ. of Kansas Medical Ctr.) have written a solid and interesting biography that also doubles as a study of Kansas City's squalid side during the Pendergast years. Pendergast was, even in full power, a target of reform efforts orchestrated by shifting coalitions of Republicans, disaffected fellow Democrats, the Kansas City Star, and federal officials, leading finally to his conviction on tax charges in 1939. This book will be of most interest regionally, but all academic collections should consider it as well.?Fritz Buckallew, Univ. of Central Oklahoma Lib., Edmond
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

This biography does little to dissipate the sensationalism surrounding its subject. Set up in the business of politics in 1890 by his eldest brother, James, Thomas J. Pendergast rose slowly but steadily to the top of the Kansas City political machine that his brother had created, eventually becoming the city's de facto ruler and a very wealthy man. While widespread rumors of drug dealing, prostitution, election fraud, and violence plagued his career as a powerbroker--a career spent largely behind the scenes, and not in elective office--historian Larsen (Univ. of Missouri, Kansas City) and archivist Hulston (Univ. of Kansas Medical Center) do little more than repeat these rumors, seemingly unable to either substantiate or eliminate them. Indeed, the only wrongdoing on Pendergast's part of which the authors seem positive is the income-tax evasion for which he was convicted and sent to Leavenworth in 1939. Frequently compared to Al Capone (also at Leavenworth for tax evasion), Pendergast did not linger in jail; he spent only 12 months of a 15-month sentence behind bars. This sentence was blasted as too lenient by a press that had turned against ``the Boss'' of ``Tom's Town,'' as Kansas City had come to be called. He died in 1945 alone and nearly broke; his wife had finally left him, and his money had gone to pay government fines and his endless gambling debts. His greatest legacy is, supposedly, to have fixed the election that put haberdasher (and loyal Pendergast supporter) Harry Truman in his first public office and on a trajectory to the White House. Those unfamiliar with Pendergast will likely find parallels with Richard Daley's Chicago and Boss Tweed's Tammany Hall. Unfortunately, while the subject is an interesting and important one, Larsen and Hulston seem to have little to offer but recycled rumor and innuendo. (30 b&w illustrations, not seen) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: University of Missouri; 1ST edition (December 31, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826211453
• ISBN-13: 978-0826211453
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #997,609 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars I studied under Professor Larsen, and I believe this book to be thoroughly researched and clearly composed, November 1, 2011

By 

mikespace "Mike D" (KCMO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pendergast! (MISSOURI BIOGRAPHY SERIES) (Hardcover)

I graduated from the University of Missouri, Kansas City in May 2001 and Dr. Larsen was my head adviser on my Master's thesis. I chose him for being the most published professor in the Department of History.

Pendergast is a true page turner, while at the same time the book maintains its academic credentials with meticulous footnotes referencing the best primary source material available. Dr. Larsen is no slouch, and this book lives up to his high standards.

Jim and Tom Pendergast were working class, Irish American, "goat" Democrats, who represented the interests of the poor and politically unconnected. Pendergast concrete built downtown KC, and the political machine employed men in a time before unemployment compensation, workers compensation, welfare, Social Security or any of the programs of the New Deal. However, Pendergast thugs ran heroin, prostitution, gambling, illegal hooch and practically every other vice. Kansas City in the 1930s was a hotbed of crime but also of religious and racial tolerance, senseless violence but also cultural mixing, machine gun blasts but also brilliant jazz (Lester Young, Count Basie, Charlie Parker, etc.). The city itself was compared to Calcutta & Shanghai, and Pendergast's KC created a sleazy example to be perfected later by Las Vegas.

Inevitably the forces of progress halted Pendergast. The IRS busted him for tax evasion in 1939. There was no longer room in America for Pendergast in the age of Franklin D Roosevelt's New Deal. However, Pendergast's mixed legacy made Kansas City the most swinging and interesting city in America for a time, which the city has never quite seen again, as it fell back into the Protestant, Midwestern fold.

Just read the book. It's outstanding.