Bashing Chicago Traditions

Description

In Bashing Chicago Traditions, Mel Holli and Paul Green return us to the raucous power struggles and coalition building that enabled Harold Washington, Chicago's first black mayor to capture City Hall and consolidate power in the nation's most seriously political city. In the breezy, blarney-free style of those who know their way around the parishes and pool rooms of Chicago's bungalow belt, Holli and Green analyze one of the most remarkable achievements of modern politics: How Harold Washington "danced on the grave of patronage," in his words, yet still found ways to reward his core constituency through an intriguing combination of contracts, executive orders, quota hiring and set-asides. Holli and Green recount the turbulence of the Harold Washington era from its early stumbles to Washington's final triumphs, his consolidation of political strength to a level unmatched by any big city mayor since the ol' boss himself, Chicago's late Mayor Richard J. Daley. It is a tale of modern politics, of a political machine that wasn't a political machine in a city that often seems willing to accept no other form of governance but political machines. Holli and Green's book is no less captivating than the subject it covers.

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