Customer Reviews

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall

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George Washington Plunkitt is simply charming. Corrupt, of course, but charming nonetheless--and refreshingly honest about his corruption, which is part of his charm. I got more than a few quiet chuckles from his "very plain talks on practical politics" and almost felt I was reading a series of Mark Twain monologues.

A reader has to be careful around Mr. Plunkitt. He exhibits attractive, quintessentially American qualities such as a smart, down-to-earth common sense, a kind of "tell it like it is" honesty and a readiness to hustle to achieve his goals. He also, however, has such negative traits as, among others, anti-intellectualism and a propensity to employ the better parts of his character in the service of very pragmatic--in the derogatory sense--goals. Yet I *like* the man, and I think most readers do. The way he talks about himself endears me to his vices and very nearly makes me forget that graft is graft, whether "honest" or not. This ability of his (or of his interviewer/editor/co-author), apart from his astute observations or the fuller appreciation he might give some readers of the politics of Tammany Hall and the patronage system, is probably the key to his book's enduring popularity. He's simply interesting, and that is enough reason to read his book.

In history's rear view mirror, George Washington Plunkitt appears to be just another guy in a long line of corrupt politicians. There's no denying that he was corrupt, but as William Riordon recounts, Plunkitt honestly believed that he was not doing the public any harm. In fact, he believed that there was such a thing as honest graft, a sort of victimless crime. Certainly this was a self-serving philosophy, but there is a sincerity in his discourses that defies any trace of hypocrisy.

His belief that Tammany Hall was a benevolent organization that served the poor and needy put a bemused smile on my face. After all, Plunkitt doesn't see or doesn't admit to seeing that the robbing of public funds through honest or dishonest graft is what contributed to the social problems, like unemployment, poverty and crime, which for the most part put the needy and poor in their predicament in the first place. But he absolves himself from his actions by his now-famous defense, "I seen my opportunities and I took 'em." And this is what makes Plunkitt such a congenial and magnetic man, what makes him so damned likeable. You KNOW he's a thief, you KNOW he contributed to the misery of thousands. Yet his playful, plain-speaking style, his candidness about his activities, his wit, and, at times, his goofiness, make him different from other Tammany leaders like Boss Tweed, say, or Charlie Murphy. He's more in line with Big Tim Sullivan or James J. Walker.

George Washington Plunkitt was a charmer, no doubt about it. William Riordon was obviously under his spell. And the Johnson/Boswell comparison is very valid. It is difficult to maintain the utter contempt one should have for this thief. And yet... I would have loved to have had drunk with him at Hoffmann's bar and let him speak on for hours. Like Riordon, I think I would have been hypnotized too.

NB--Peter Quinn's brilliant Introduction serves the book well.

Rocco Dormarunno, author of The Five Points

Plunkitt was a king in a world that needed benevolent despots. In a place like turn of the century of New York before Keynesian economics and the Welfare State, Tammany was the only relief the poor knew. Plunkitt reveals with refreshing honesty the seemingly rough and coarse manner with which one needed to play the game of politics in his town. However, one must look at it in context. This was a different time from our own, and the reader must imagine whether a person of Plunkitt's demeanor can last in the information age political world. Then again, the book also illustrates how many of the problems Tammany had still exist today.

I used this book for research on turn-of-the-century politics, particularly political machines. I found it to be very useful in describing the ways party bosses manipulated and filandered in order to gain power. Plunkitt's candid style made for a very entertaining and informative read.

Rarely is a political book as entertaining as it is informative. This is one of those rarities. Riordon provides a classic examination of the reality of big-city politics as it was practiced a century ago. Any principled person considering a career in politics should read this book to understand what makes many self-interested, career politicians tick.

I first read this highly informative, often hilarious book for Intro to Political Science back in college. In this short tome are pearls of wisdom about politics and human nature still relevant 100 years later. Plunkitt, high atop his regular boot-black stand in NYC, declaims to his biographer, Riordan, a life spent in the political machine known as Tammany Hall, with such disarming honesty that is nearly non-existent today. Plunkitt's diatribes on "honest graft vs. dishonest graft," "Brooklynites Natural-Born Hayseeds," and the evils of civil service exams are outright hilarious. I highly recommend this book to anyone with even a passing interest in politics.

Plunkitt makes no allusion to his goals: money for himself through patronage of his loyal constituency. He really is quite endearing in his straightforwardness about the game of politics. If any of our presidential hopefuls were a fraction as honest as Plunkitt, they would have my vote guaranteed.

Corruption and graft are not new to public policy. Plunkett gives short insightful tales of human nature and politics. This books reminds local officials the problems they face are not new and give an insightful perspective on the political machine.

I read this for my Political Parties Class. I found the book very interesting, however there were more typos in this book, than in any book I have ever read. I would buy a different edition of this book. This is a reprint from a company that only does reprints of rare books. Find another one to go with, you have to decipher this one. For example, some "I" are replaced with "!", and so on. Very annoying.

This hundred-year-old book is not a traditional non-fiction book. It is actually a series of elocutions on the politics of the day as practiced by a big city "machine," Tammany Hall. This was in the time when parties had direct control over who was allowed to run for office and how spoils would be distributed. This system has been dead in America for nearly fifty years, or at least since national reforms were carried out tin the early 1970s that devolved power down and created lots of mini-campaign, instead of one campaign that was directed from the party.

Plunkitt gives a frank description of what he sees as Tammany's benefits to society and how undoing this situation would be disastrous. To Plunkitt, Tammany is more akin to a social organization than what people today think of political parties. Plunkitt helps out when his constituents are in trouble, go to jail, have money problems or problems at work. He also uses the spoils system of awarding political allies by handing out plum job assignments. His sometimes odd rants against civil service reform, designed to break the back of political machines and the spoils systems, sometimes verge on the comical.

This is a short, entertaining look at how politics was conducted a hundred years ago. It was a joy to read.