Books like Machine made by Terry Golway

In "Machine Made," historian and journalist Terry Golway offers a revisionist account of Tammany Hall, the powerful New York political machine rooted in Irish American communities. Drawing on a wealth of archival evidence, he argues that, despite its well‑documented corruption and frequent political manipulation, Tammany Hall delivered critical public services to impoverished immigrants, facilitated their assimilation, and championed progressive labor reforms that foreshadowed the New Deal. Golway contextualizes Tammany’s influence within the broader sweep of American Progressive politics, highlighting the organization’s role in crafting state legislation that advanced workers’ rights and expanded municipal welfare programs. His work also confronts the anti‑Irish and anti‑Catholic prejudice of the era, most famously exemplified by cartoonist Thomas Nast, and discusses how such biases shaped public perceptions of the machine’s work.

First publish date: 2014