Robert G. Spinney
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781501749599
- eISBN:
- 9781501748356
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501749599.003.0011
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This chapter focuses on Richard J. Daley, who was elected mayor of Chicago in 1955 and won re-election in the city's next five mayoral contests. It describes Daley as the undisputed boss of Chicago ...
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This chapter focuses on Richard J. Daley, who was elected mayor of Chicago in 1955 and won re-election in the city's next five mayoral contests. It describes Daley as the undisputed boss of Chicago and the man who perfected the Cook County Democratic Party machine. It analyzes why Daley might have been the best in American history at doing what he did, in which he used a political machine to govern a large city. The chapter investigates how Daley was a scrupulously honest politician who steered clear of financial and moral improprieties but failed to adjust to the changing realities of Chicago, especially those relating to its growing black population. It also recounts Daley's death in 1976 that marked the passing of an era in Chicago history.Less
This chapter focuses on Richard J. Daley, who was elected mayor of Chicago in 1955 and won re-election in the city's next five mayoral contests. It describes Daley as the undisputed boss of Chicago and the man who perfected the Cook County Democratic Party machine. It analyzes why Daley might have been the best in American history at doing what he did, in which he used a political machine to govern a large city. The chapter investigates how Daley was a scrupulously honest politician who steered clear of financial and moral improprieties but failed to adjust to the changing realities of Chicago, especially those relating to its growing black population. It also recounts Daley's death in 1976 that marked the passing of an era in Chicago history.
Larry Bennett
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816665754
- eISBN:
- 9781452946559
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816665754.003.0012
- Subject:
- Architecture, Architectural Theory and Criticism
Mayor Richard J. Daley dominated Chicago’s public affairs from the mid-1950s until the mid-1970s, during these two decades substantially centralizing Cook County Democratic Party operations. This ...
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Mayor Richard J. Daley dominated Chicago’s public affairs from the mid-1950s until the mid-1970s, during these two decades substantially centralizing Cook County Democratic Party operations. This chapter examines Daley’s two-decade-long mayoralty. It discusses how Daley led Chicago against the context of evolving mayoral practice across the United States. It looks at contemporary Chicago’s self-promotion as a global city, in order to identify how this policy vision emerged, the salient features of the Daley administration’s engagement with globalization, and the local effects of implementing the policies that advance this vision. The discussion of Chicago particulars is further connected to a framework for interpreting mayoral initiatives across the field of US cities. While contemporary trends in Chicago cannot be understood without a healthy respect for the undead hand of the local past, the defining assumption of so much political commentary on this city—that Chicago is a machine city, and always will be—narrows understanding through its insistence that all Chicago politics is local, that the present is an undeviating, straight-line extrapolation from the local past.Less
Mayor Richard J. Daley dominated Chicago’s public affairs from the mid-1950s until the mid-1970s, during these two decades substantially centralizing Cook County Democratic Party operations. This chapter examines Daley’s two-decade-long mayoralty. It discusses how Daley led Chicago against the context of evolving mayoral practice across the United States. It looks at contemporary Chicago’s self-promotion as a global city, in order to identify how this policy vision emerged, the salient features of the Daley administration’s engagement with globalization, and the local effects of implementing the policies that advance this vision. The discussion of Chicago particulars is further connected to a framework for interpreting mayoral initiatives across the field of US cities. While contemporary trends in Chicago cannot be understood without a healthy respect for the undead hand of the local past, the defining assumption of so much political commentary on this city—that Chicago is a machine city, and always will be—narrows understanding through its insistence that all Chicago politics is local, that the present is an undeviating, straight-line extrapolation from the local past.
