Plunkitt of Tammany Hall: A Series of Very Plain Talks on Very Practical Politics

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall
A Series of Very Plain Talks on Very Practical Politics
William L. Riordan

"Nobody thinks of drawin' the distinction between honest graft and dishonest graft."

This classic work offers the unblushing, unvarnished wit and wisdom of one of the most fascinating figures ever to play the American political game and win. George Washington Plunkitt rose from impoverished beginnings to become ward boss of the Fifteenth Assembly District in New York, a key player in the powerhouse political team of Tammany Hall, and, not incidentally, a millionaire. In a series of utterly frank talks given at his headquarters (Graziano's bootblack stand outside the New York County Court House), he revealed to a sharp-eared and sympathetic reporter named William L. Riordan the secrets of political success as practiced and perfected by him and fellow Tammany Hall titans. The result is not only a volume that reveals more about our political system than does a shelfful of civics textbooks, but also an irresistible portrait of a man who would feel happily at home playing ball with today's lobbyists and king makers, trading votes for political and financial favors.

Doing for twentieth-century America what Machiavelli did for Renaissance Italy, and as entertaining as it is instructive, Plunkitt of Tammany Hall is essential reading for those who prefer twenty-twenty vision to rose-colored glasses in viewing how our government works and why.

With an Introduction by Peter Quinn
and a New Afterword


About the Author
George Washington Plunkitt was born into poverty in New York in 1842. He had only three years of formal schooling, but this lack did not hinder him from becoming one of the most powerful men in New York City politics. He died in 1924, a renowned civic leader and a millionaire.

William L. Riordan, a newspaperman for the New York Evening Post, interviewed George Washington Plunkitt and preserved his philosophy for posterity. He recognized in Plunkitt an exceptional frankness that set him apart from his fellow political bosses. In Plunkitt of Tammany Hall Riordan admits readers into an area of life that mystified middle-class Americans at the turn of the twentieth century.

Peter Quinn is a former speechwriter for Mario Cuomo and the author of Banished Children of Eve: A Novel of Civil War New York.