From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. William Marcy Tweed didn't invent graft, but he rigged elections and stole from the public on an unprecedented scale, gaining a stranglehold on New York City and amassing a vast personal fortune. By the early 1870s, he and his "ring" had skimmed between $25 and $40 million from the municipal treasury, a staggering amount even in an era notorious for robber barons and market manipulators. Ackerman, the author of The Gold Ring: Jim Fisk, Jay Gould, and Black Friday 1869, a book about two other Gilded Age scoundrels, deftly chronicles Tweed's epic rise and ultimate disgrace, giving us a nuanced portrait of the "Boss." Early in his career, Tweed brilliantly recognized that he could win power by mobilizing New York's teeming working-class and immigrant wards. Through patronage and largesse, Tweed recruited an army of ballot-box stuffers who helped install his cronies in office, allowing him to award jobs and contracts to friends while punishing enemies. Tweed's ring borrowed vast amounts on the city's tab and spent lavishly on such public projects as Central Park, making Tweed "the city's grand benefactor, Santa Claus with a diamond pin." But while Ackerman gives Tweed his due, describing how the Boss's machine aided the poor and helped modernize a crowded, chaotic city, the author is too clear-eyed to present his subject as a latter-day Robin Hood. Ackerman's Boss Tweed robbed everyone-and kept plenty for himself. And ultimately, Tweed's corruption and fiscal recklessness had crippling consequences for the city long after he died, penniless, in jail. In the end, this book is not only a compelling look at the colorful yet ruthless man who invented the big city political machine, it is also the gripping story of how dedicated newspapermen and zealous reformers brought down a notorious kingpin. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist
Ackerman previously regaled readers with Gilded Age shenanigans (The Gold Ring: Jim Fisk, Jay Gould, and Black Friday, 1869, 1988) and now capitalizes on another of the era's memorable rogues: William Tweed. An associate's eulogy after Tweed died in a New York City jail in 1878--that "Tweed was not an honest politician, but a level one"--bespeaks another side to Tweed's story than his gargantuan graft would imply. Ackerman alludes to positive points in Tweed's defense, such as his interest in acculturating immigrants and getting things built. But Tweed's notoriety stems from his vertiginous downfall, which Ackerman narrates with an accent on the political and press frenzy that surrounded it. Triggered by a city clerk with a conscience, whose evidence of systematic swindles wound its way to a then-insignificant New York Times, the scandal was blood in the water to rival politicians and to Thomas Nast, whose caricatures remain the indelible image of the corpulent Tweed. For connoisseurs of corruption, Ackerman shrewdly mixes together the reformist zeal and political opportunism that marked Tweed's career. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
Among the monumental characters who ascended to renown and influence in the history of American politics, few are more fascinating than Boss Tweed; and few working historians could record in more vivid detail his astonishing career than Kenneth D. Ackerman, who in his two previous books has established himself as an investigative historian of the first order. This vibrant, accessible, and altogether captivating new work, Boss Tweed, is a biography of the legendary figure who "bribed the state legislature, fixed elections, skimmed money from city contractors, and diverted public funds on a massive scale." During his reign at Tammany Hall and then in a variety of elected posts, including as U.S. senator, Tweed wielded almost total control over New York State and City politics, before his unparalleled zealotry and remorseless disregard for the law led to his imprisonment. Yet, as Ackerman shows, Tweed's positive political contributions have been largely overlooked. From one of the most talented new historians to have emerged in recent years comes this thrilling story of William Marcy Tweed, the master manipulator who tried to make all of New York the instrument of his own ruthless ambitions, and succeeded-for a time. Numerous historic photographs are also featured.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Among the monumental characters who ascended to renown and influence in the history of American politics, few are more fascinating than Boss Tweed; and few working historians could record in more vivid detail his astonishing career than Kenneth D. Ackerman, who in his two previous books has established himself as an investigative historian of the first order. This vibrant, accessible, and altogether captivating new work, Boss Tweed, is a biography of the legendary figure who "bribed the state legislature, fixed elections, skimmed money from city contractors, and diverted public funds on a massive scale." During his reign at Tammany Hall and then in a variety of elected posts, including as U.S. senator, Tweed wielded almost total control over New York State and City politics, before his unparalleled zealotry and remorseless disregard for the law led to his imprisonment. Yet, as Ackerman shows, Tweed's positive political contributions have been largely overlooked. From one of the most talented new historians to have emerged in recent years comes this thrilling story of William Marcy Tweed, the master manipulator who tried to make all of New York the instrument of his own ruthless ambitions, and succeeded-for a time. Numerous historic photographs are also featured.

FROM THE CRITICS

Pete Hamill - The New York Times Sunday Book Review

In his excellent new biography of the Boss, Kenneth D. Ackerman tells again the story of the man who died in 1878 and remains the epitome of big-city corruption. Tweed is a wonderfully vivid subject, a man of gigantic, Rabelaisian hungers. He seems always to have wanted more. More food. More money. More power. Unfortunately, for a long time he got what he wanted.

Kenneth T. Jackson - The Washington Post

Kenneth D. Ackerman's Boss Tweed is the first biography of the Tammany leader to appear in the past quarter-century. Focusing on the years after 1871, when Tweed was either in court or jail, the book is based upon solid research in the available primary and secondary sources, and is replete with rich biographical details and colorful anecdotes that bring the period to life.

William Grimes - The New York Times

Tweed and his well-oiled political machine provided the model for big-city bosses for generations to come, and, crooked though he was, he remains in many ways a tremendously appealing figure. Mr. Ackerman has it right when he writes, "Except for his stealing, Tweed would have been a great man; but then had he been honest, he wouldn't have been Tweed and would not have left nearly so great a mark."

Publishers Weekly

William Marcy Tweed didn t invent graft, but he rigged elections and stole from the public on an unprecedented scale, gaining a stranglehold on New York City and amassing a vast personal fortune. By the early 1870s, he and his ring had skimmed between $25 and $40 million from the municipal treasury, a staggering amount even in an era notorious for robber barons and market manipulators. Ackerman, the author of The Gold Ring: Jim Fisk, Jay Gould, and Black Friday 1869, a book about two other Gilded Age scoundrels, deftly chronicles Tweed s epic rise and ultimate disgrace, giving us a nuanced portrait of the Boss. Early in his career, Tweed brilliantly recognized that he could win power by mobilizing New York s teeming working-class and immigrant wards. Through patronage and largesse, Tweed recruited an army of ballot-box stuffers who helped install his cronies in office, allowing him to award jobs and contracts to friends while punishing enemies. Tweed s ring borrowed vast amounts on the city s tab and spent lavishly on such public projects as Central Park, making Tweed the city s grand benefactor, Santa Claus with a diamond pin. But while Ackerman gives Tweed his due, describing how the Boss s machine aided the poor and helped modernize a crowded, chaotic city, the author is too clear-eyed to present his subject as a latter-day Robin Hood. Ackerman s Boss Tweed robbed everyone and kept plenty for himself. And ultimately, Tweed s corruption and fiscal recklessness had crippling consequences for the city long after he died, penniless, in jail. In the end, this book is not only a compelling look at the colorful yet ruthless man who invented the big city political machine, it is also the gripping story of how dedicated newspapermen and zealous reformers brought down a notorious kingpin. (Mar.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews