Machine Made
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€31.99
History casts Tammany Hall as shorthand for the worst of urban politics:
graft and patronage personified by notoriously crooked characters. In his
groundbreaking work Machine Made, journalist and historian Terry Golway
dismantles these stereotypes, focusing on the many benefits of machine politics for
marginalized immigrants. As thousands sought refuge from Ireland’s potato famine,
the very question of who would be included under the protection of American democracy
was at stake. Tammany’s transactional politics were at the heart of crucial social
reforms—such as child labor laws, workers’ compensation, and minimum wages—
and Golway demonstrates that American political history cannot be understood without
Tammany’s profound contribution. Culminating in FDR’s New Deal, Machine Made
reveals how Tammany Hall “changed the role of government—for the better to millions
of disenfranchised recent American arrivals” (New York Observer).
Terry Golway was a journalist for thirty years, writing for the New York Observer, the New York Times, and other venues. He holds a PhD in American history from Rutgers University and is currently the director of the Kean University Center for History, Politics, and Policy in New Jersey.