Lords of the Last Machine: The Story of Politics in Chicago

The Grangers previously collaborated on Fighting Jane, a book about Jane Byrne, then mayor of Chicago where the authors live. Here they trace the history of machine politics in that city from its genesis to the present. They make the point that the goal of bosses such as Hinky Dink Kenna and Bathhouse John Coughlin at the turn of the century, and Roger Sullivan and Adolph Sabath from 1910 through the 1920s was not merely to skim a little graft from city contracts but to obtain big moneyand they got it. A creation of Irish immigrants, the machine was fine-tuned by Tony Cermak, a Bohemian, and was carried to its ultimate control by Richard Daley. But the changing expectations of blacks, the exodus of ethnics to the suburbs and the legal victories of reformers did the machine in. It was buried by Jane Byrne, who noted, ""Television is the new precinct captain.'' Photos not seen by PW. (May 29)