To Be Mayor of New York - (Columbia History of Urban Life) by Chris McNickle (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

From Tammany Hall to the election of David Dinkins, To Be Mayor of New York offers insights into the effect of ethnic competition on the demise of urban political machines.

Beginning with a colorful assessment of New York City's Tammany Hall as it existed in the late nineteenth century, McNickle traces the effect of the arrival of large numbers of Jewish and Italian immigrants -and later black and Puerto Rican migrants- on the Irish-dominated political machine. He focuses on the political passage of Jewish immigrants through the various small parties unique to New York -socialist, American Labor, and Liberal. Later he describes their attraction to various factions of the traditional Democratic and Republican parties. He spotlights the willingness of large numbers of Jewish voters to cast ballots for third-party candidates on the basis of their shared philosophical commitments and political priorities.

McNickle then examines mayoral campaigns between 1945, the end of the LaGuardia era, and 1989, during which the Irish receded and Jews and later African-Americans emerged as the most important ethnic groups in local politics. To Be Mayor of New York offers the most complete study of the development of Jewish political participation in New York. Placing a rise of the New York City Reform Movement in historical perspective, the author explains the election of New York's first Jewish mayor, Abe Beame, and the first African-American mayor, David Dinkins, as part of the political evolution of both these groups.

From the Back Cover

From the heyday of Tammany Hall - to the election of David Dinkins, To Be Mayor of New York is an engrossing and thoroughly researched narrative that captures New York City politics in all its complexity and points out the ways ethnic competition affects the selection of New York's mayor. Beginning with a colorful account of late nineteenth century Tammany Hall - New York's Democratic Party organization - McNickle assesses the response of the Irish-dominated political machine to the arrival of Jewish and Italian immigrants and later to blacks and Puerto Ricans. He shows how, in a pattern unique to New York, the participation of large numbers of Jewish workers in a variety of splinter parties - Socialist, American Labor, and Liberal - affected the city's ethnic coalitions in the years leading up to Fiorello LaGuardia's three terms as mayor, and beyond. Focusing next on the election campaigns since 1945, McNickle traces a shift in political predominance from the Irish to the Jews, and then to African-Americans, as New York's politicians adapted their coalitions to the city's changing ethnic and racial composition. To Be Mayor of New York captures the excitement of Mayor Robert Wagner's political combat with Tammany boss Carmine DeSapio in 1961, and the promise of John V. Lindsay's election in 1965, followed by disillusionment with his administration. It traces the rise of Abe Beame and Edward I. Koch, the city's only Jewish mayors, and of David Dinkins, New York's first African-American mayor. McNickle shows how the careers of these men were part of the political evolution of their respective ethnic groups. To Be Mayor of New York concludes with an analysis of the 1989 mayoral election, and takes a hard look at the political landscape facing David Dinkins and his challengers in 1993.

Review Quotes

"To Be Mayor of New York" offers a knowing reading of New York's politics from the beginning of the century, tracing the ethnic predilections of the electorate through the succession of mayoral campaigns...This book is interesting, insightful, and useful.

About the Author

Chris McNickle was born in New York City and grew up in the Bronx. He is a consultant in the pension fund practice of Greenwich Associates, the international business strategy consulting firm, and has worked for the New York City Human Resources Administration, creating housing for the homeless; for the mayor's ofice in Chicago; and for the United States Department of State.