Buy new:
$22.09
FREE delivery: Wednesday, April 24 on orders over $35.00 shipped by Amazon.
Ships from: Amazon
Sold by: SAGUAROS STORE
List Price: $26.99 Details

The List Price is the suggested retail price of a new product as provided by a manufacturer, supplier, or seller. Except for books, Amazon will display a List Price if the product was purchased by customers on Amazon or offered by other retailers at or above the List Price in at least the past 90 days. List prices may not necessarily reflect the product's prevailing market price.
Learn more
Save: $4.90 (18%)
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Wednesday, April 24 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35. Order within 16 hrs 19 mins
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$22.09 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$22.09
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon
Ships from
Amazon
Sold by
Sold by
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime
FREE delivery Thursday, April 25 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35. Order within 22 hrs 4 mins
Used: Good | Details
Sold by EraStockAve
Condition: Used: Good
Comment: Book has little to no signs of shelf and/or handling wear. Clean pages - no writing or highlighting. Ships from Amazon!
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Other Sellers on Amazon
Added
$23.26
FREE Shipping
Get free shipping
Free shipping within the U.S. when you order $35.00 of eligible items shipped by Amazon.
Or get faster shipping on this item starting at $5.99 . (Prices may vary for AK and HI.)
Learn more about free shipping
on orders over $35.00 shipped by Amazon.
Sold by: Amazon.com
Sold by: Amazon.com
In Stock
Shipping rates and Return policy
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

The Rascal King: The Life And Times Of James Michael Curley (1874-1958) Paperback – August 21, 2000

4.6 out of 5 stars 43

{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$22.09","priceAmount":22.09,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"22","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"09","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"cxvsoQH1AoJE9T2kmJ9HCbuOf8aFuVLg5IxNiL2ds40NRf5m53B5RgsePei8s3JJCN%2BmlR10%2F7HwjpVbWptIGmJf0rPsaorbibQX9Rs8iWVIyiY1azsWW6G8Ad8%2F9Ug1YOJ6f5yoPWNw3zOI6R9mDMLIDtiHHYODfVfWvNedSgNmsPJ0I2saqPMKxEz0EWsG","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$9.42","priceAmount":9.42,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"9","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"42","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"cxvsoQH1AoJE9T2kmJ9HCbuOf8aFuVLgIacumG%2Bed1s%2BSqJOMPgW1d%2BmkhOEq16PDPjr4Obkt9H2hi1amCjmdXhh90XLmhq6Ec3rxF4i5p6%2FFBQ6zaXZsOYtn0dIyEuJjR4Q1Owi%2FvwYwoN%2F2wzgMUGm0xjQ%2BuaM5lOMyBcvGMXx78z5dr9WF7WDsYrvmuUI","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

"A truly brilliant biography."--John Kenneth Galbraith, Chicago Tribune





Twice jailed while serving in office yet a champion of the people, builder of schools yet a shameless grafter, James Michael Curley was the stuff of legend long before his life became fiction in Edwin O'Connor's classic novel
The Last Hurrah. As mayor of Boston, as a United States congressman, as governor of Massachusetts, Curley rose from the slums of South Boston in a career extending from the Progressive Era of Teddy Roosevelt to the ascendancy of the Kennedy sons. While Curley lived, he represented both the triumph of Irish Americans and the birth of divisive politics of ethnic and racial polarization; when he died, over one million mourners turned out to pay their respects in the largest wake Boston had ever seen.




Nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography, Beatty's spellbinding story of "the Kingfish of Massachusetts" is also an epic of his city, its immigrant people, and its turbulent times. It is simply biography at its best.




"Beatty's book is a delight--rich, witty, flowing, and full of insight about the nature of political corruption."--Constance Casey, Los Angeles Times




"A panoramic, exquisitely incisive biography that illuminates the triumphs, debacles, and personal sorrows of the irrepressible man known as Boston's 'Mayor of the Poor.'"--Robert Wilson, USA Today

The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Frequently bought together

$22.09
Get it as soon as Wednesday, Apr 24
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
Sold by SAGUAROS STORE and ships from Amazon Fulfillment.
+
$21.00
Get it as soon as Wednesday, Apr 24
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
One of these items ships sooner than the other.
Choose items to buy together.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A rousingly entertaining, marvelously well-written biography." -- William E. Leuchtenburg, The New Republic

"A truly brilliant biography." --
John Kenneth Galbraith, Chicago Tribune

"Hugely entertaining." --
Boston Sunday Globe

"Read this book this year if you read no other." --
Lawrence J. Goodrich, Christian Science Monitor

About the Author

Jack Beatty is a Senior Editor of the Atlantic Monthly and a News Analyst on the public radio program On Point from WBUR- Boston. He is the author of The Rascal King: The Life and Times of James Michael Curley, 1874-1958. His 2001 anthology, Colossus: How the Corporation Changed America, was named one of the ten best business books of the year by BusinessWeek. Mr. Beatty is married, with one son. He lives in New Hampshire.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Da Capo Press; Revised ed. edition (August 21, 2000)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 620 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0306810026
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0306810022
  • Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1320L
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.78 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.02 x 5.92 x 1.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 out of 5 stars 43

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Jack Beatty
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
43 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on May 31, 2021
It’s a very lengthy story, but defines American politics throughout the 20th century with insight rarely seen. A very thought provoking analysis of life in America.
2 people found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2013
If you ever want to read a book about the political history of Boston this is the book for you. Well written, insightful, factual, and frightening. The influence of the Irish on the political scene in Boston is here. Highly recommend for any politician or someone thinking about how the City of Boston was created politically. Easy to follow and read. If you live in Boston you will want to visit Curley's home on the Jamaicaway afterwards.
4 people found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States on May 11, 2013
If you are looking for the quintessential book on 20th Century politics in the northeast, this is the book for you. Wonderfully detailed and filled with anecdotes of the Irish/Catholic political scene in Boston during the height of the immigration from Europe of the masses. Curley was a political genius and a gifted fighter for "his people". A "rascal" no doubt, but a wonderful mayor, congressman and governor. God bless his soul, this "Rascal King".
3 people found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2019
Curley's legend is based more on the Last Hurrah than reality. This book covers so many of his misdeeds and divisive politics that balance the "Skeffington" Curley. I am from Boston and heard all my life how "great' Curley was as a mayor (I was never alive during his life). This book covers his many faults and demythologizes his tenure. Overall a solid book worth reading if Curley, politics or the history of Boston interests you. The ending seemed rushed as if the author realized how long the book was and needed to finish up. Wish the book had more "funny" stories about Curley's approach to politics since there seems to be an endless store of them by those who lived during his time.

Beaty seems intent on forcing the reader to carry a dictionary to get through the book. Not impressed by the unnecessarily difficult and arcane word usage. Also agree with other reviewers that his comments about current politics are distracting and not relevant for the most part. He confuses being a biographer with being a commentator.

Despite its shortcomings, the book is a good addition to political reading and I recommend it.
4 people found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States on September 6, 2020
Understanding the early history of the US political history.
2 people found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2016
I ordered this book as a reference book, but it is not an authoritative biography. "The Life and Times of James Michael Curley", it is not. I could have done without all the additional verbiage about politics after Curley's death. They do not fit the 'times of James Michael Curley." After awhile, I wondered whether Beatty had anything good to say about anyone as he dredged up scandal after scandal about every person he mentioned, but he did not seem to have that negative attitude toward Standish Willcox (Nov. 18, 1870 - Jan. 2, 1933). Instead of ranting about politics that had no bearing on Curley’s time, Beatty should have done more research on Standish Willcox.

I would like to correct and add some information about the mysterious, diplomatic, elusive Mr. Willcox (or Wilcox), Mayor Curley's confidential secretary from the time about 1910, editor of the 'City Record' (during Curley’s 1st and 2nd term as mayor), editor of the Statistics Department under Mayor Nichols and Mayor Curley’s third term . Standish Willcox was born in New Bedford, MA, Nov. 18, 1870 (from Wilcox's birth record), not in 1880, as Beatty reported on p. 119. He may have been the reporter who covered the trial of Lizzie Borden in 1893 in New Bedford for the 'New Bedford Journal'. He did send dispatches on the trial to a Buffalo, New York paper who stated that in their coverage of the trial. By 1896, Wilcox was living in Boston where he worked as a secretary of an Emergency Hospital at 142 Kingston. Only in 1906 was he listed in the City Directory as a reporter, living on Columbus Ave.

Going by the description of Standish Wilcox from other sources, Beatty did include a photograph which may include Willcox. Wilcox was described as tall, with a taste for formal dress and top hat (not much help when others are also in formal attire) and carrying a Malacca cane. The tallest man in the second photograph after page 100 matches that description.

The story about the first meeting of Curley and Wilcox varies. Beatty used the version from an article in 1933, at the time of Wilcox’s death, which places their meeting in 1910 as related by Mayor Curley. In an article from June, 1923, Wilcox related meeting Curley on his wedding day in June 1906. (These can be found in James Michael Curley Scrapbooks, available online at Holy Cross college website.) I favor 1906 as the time period that they met, but I think the story from Curley’s ‘autobiography’ "I’d Do It Again", is the closest.

Jack Beatty should have done some scholarly research into the Fin Com investigation of 1917. He cryptically remarked on p. 193, that “Standish Willcox took the blame”. There was a massive cover up of Mayor Curley’s misdeeds by Atty. Daniel Coakley, DA Pelletier, Mr. Daly of Daly Plumbing Supply and Standish Willcox, editor of the City Record and confidential secretary to the mayor. The big mystery is why Standish Willcox made statements damaging to the mayor at a secret session of the Fin Com and then in the public hearing, claimed that the ‘transcript was in error’. In short, he denied his previous testimony. Was pressure brought to bear on the honest, reputable Mr. Willcox by Curley and Coakley, or had there been some hanky panky by the Fin Com members who were ‘out to get the mayor’?

Curley lost the election that took place as the Fin Com was finishing its investigation to Andrew James Peters in December 1917. The City Council tried to create a job to keep Wilcox on the payroll, but the new Mayor vetoed the idea. Instead Wilcox went to work in Washington until Curley was next in office. (Due, it was claimed, to James Curley’s influence with the Speaker of the House, Champ Clark. But perhaps because Champ Clark knew Willcox.) When Curley was out of office the next time, Wilcox worked in the Statistical Department under Mayor Nichols. When Curley was back in as mayor, Wilcox was again his social secretary until his death Jan. 2, 1933. (from newspaper articles of the time, some in James Michael Curley's Scrapbooks) Also from reading other books about Curley (‘The Purple Shamrock’ and ‘I’d Do It Again’) and newspaper articles, Standish Wilcox was well known in Boston and much loved especially by the City Hall reporters. It was reported that were 600 people at his funeral.

Plenty is said about the politicians who fought with Curley but very little about the man who, it appears, was his intimate friend for close to 30 years. Standish Willcox didn’t appear to have been dishonest or profited from the graft and corruption. The worst that I have uncovered about Willcox, is that he sacrificed his reputation to cover up for James Curley. Their friendship and loyalty through the years was legendary. It seems that Stanish Willcox was really the man that Diogenes was seeking. (P. 91, "I’d Do It Again"
I'd Do It Again - Autobiography of James Michael Curley  )

For more information, see my review of "The Purple Shamrock", by Joseph Dinneen
The Purple Shamrock: The Hon. James Michael Curley of Boston
7 people found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States on April 8, 2014
What more can one say, Jack Beatty wrote it! Wm Bulger's book on Curley is at best trivial by comparison.
2 people found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States on July 5, 2017
Great read, product arrived on time.
One person found this helpful
Report