{"product_id":"when-bosses-ruled-philadelphia-the-emergence-of-the-republican-machine-18671933-9780271009230","title":"When Bosses Ruled Philadelphia: The Emergence of the Republican Machine  18671933","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn 1903  Muckraker Lincoln Steffens brought the city of Philadelphia lasting notoriety as \"the most corrupt and the most contented\" urban center in the nation. Famous for its colorful \"feudal barons \" from \"King James\" McManes and his \"Gas Ring\" to \"Iz\" Durham and \"Sunny Jim\" McNichol  Philadelphia offers the historian a classic case of the duel between bosses and reformers for control of the American city. But  strangely enough  Philadelphias Republican machine has not been subject to critical examination until now. When Bosses Ruled Philadelphia challenges conventional wisdom on the political machine  which has it that party bosses controlled Philadelphia as early as the 1850s and maintained that control  with little change  until the Great Depression. According to Peter McCaffery  however  all bosses were not alike  and political power came only gradually over time. McManess \"Gas Ring\" in the 1870s was not as powerful as the well-oiled machine ushered in by Matt Quay in the late 1880s. Through a careful analysis of city records  McCaffery identifies the beneficiaries of the emerging Republican Organization  which sections of the local electorate supported it  and why. He concludes that genuine boss rule did not emerge as the dominant institution in Philadelphia politics until just before the turn of the century. McCaffery considers the function that the machine filled in the life of the city. Did it ultimately serve its supporters and the community as a whole  as Steffens and recent commentators have suggested? No  says McCaffery. The romantic image of the boss as \"good guy\" of the urban drama is wholly undeserved.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45924268998709,"sku":"ByrdShop_0271009233","price":240.87,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780271009230_c0813b1a-78df-46a1-9147-8851f31f6a59.jpg?v=1787665727","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/when-bosses-ruled-philadelphia-the-emergence-of-the-republican-machine-18671933-9780271009230","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}