The American Mayor: The Best and the Worst Big-City Leaders

The American Mayor offers a unique ranking of the nation's big-city mayors by expert scholars. Although the mayoralty is one of the most important political executive offices, it has escaped the kind of evaluations by which scholars have ranked American presidents. Now, thanks to Melvin Holli, we have a comparable survey of the "best" and "worst" mayors, covering some 730 mayors from the big-fifteen cities, from the beginning of the modern office in 1820 to the 1990s. The poll of historians, biographers, and social scientists produced a remarkably strong consensus. 
Who were our best mayors? The list ranges from Boston's "Great Mayor" Josiah Quincy (1823–1828) to New York City's Fiorello La Guardia (1934–1945), who is first on the all-time-best list. La Guardia, a stouthearted fireplug of a man, built modern New York, fought Murder Incorporated, read the comics to children over the air during a newspaper strike, and was a symbol of ethnic probity and honesty. Sandwiched between Quincy and La Guardia are several other outstanding mayors, including Cleveland's Tom Johnson (1901–1909), Pittsburgh's David Lawrence (1946–1959), Detroit's Hazen Pingree (1890–1897), and Los Angeles's Tom Bradley (1973–1993).
Taking the first-worst prize among scoundrel mayors is Chicago's William H. "Big Bill" Thompson (1915–1923, 1927–1931), one of the most colorful mayors in the city's history, if not the most corrupt. Big Bill, also known as "Kaiser Bill" for his pro-German stand during World War I, accepted campaign funds from gangsters including Al Capone. Also among the "worst" is another Chicago mayor, Jane Byrne (1979–1983), the only woman on the list. Jersey City's Frank Hague (1917–1947) and Philadelphia's Frank Rizzo (1972–1980) are among the other notable rascals who have sat in city halls.
The American Mayor presents complete findings of Holli's poll in jargon-free fashion. Holli explains the results of the survey, gives biographical sketches of the ten best mayors, as well as some attention to the worst, and then uses the findings of modern leadership studies to explore mayoral success and failure. He concludes with a chapter titled "Pathways to Power," in which he reviews the New York City political milieu that produced the nation's "best" mayor, Fiorello La Guardia, and also examines the career of the nation's most successful big-city mayor, Buffalo's Grover Cleveland, the only mayor to become president of the United States.

Biographies & Memoirs

Holli, Melvin G.

Historical

Penn State University Press

Product information not available.

Biographical Dictionary of American Mayors, 1820-1980: Big City Mayors

Jones, Peter D'A

Greenwood

This is a political biography of Hazen S. Pingree, Mayor of Detroit from 1890-1897, who established the first significant social reform administration of the time.

Reform in Detroit: Hazen S. Pingree and Urban Politics (Urban Life in America)

Politics & Social Sciences

Politics & Government

Praeger

The University of Illinois was founded in 1867 and expanded into Chicago in the 1890s. Through time, demands for the growth of the urban campus were answered. Under the leadership of Mayor Richard J. Daley, the Circle Campus was created and located in 1965 on the Near West Side of Chicago in the historic Hull-House neighborhood. In 1982, Circle Campus joined with the Medical Center to form the University of Illinois at Chicago. With outreach programs coordinated in the Great Cities Initiative, the University recognized its urban location as a major strength. Over the last decade, UIC has helped to develop a new model of higher education: the comprehensive urban research university. This volume contains almost two hundred historic photographs that serve as a rich record of the Chicago campus of the University of Illinois. Today, with 15 colleges located in a prominent urban setting, the campus is the largest and most diverse in the Chicago area, serving students from around the world. The University of Illinois at Chicago has grown to about 25,000 students, with 12,000 faculty and staff, and is one of the hundred largest research universities in the nation. It offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in more than 230 disciplines.

University of Illinois at Chicago (IL) (College History Series)

Arts & Photography

REMINI, Robert V.

Beuttler, Fred W.

Photography & Video

Arcadia Publishing

A View from City Hall: Mid-Century to Millennium offers readers a richly detailed, visual road map of Chicago as viewed from the mayor’s office in City Hall. Within these pages are emblematic images of Chicago evolving from blue-ribbon Mayor Martin Kennelly’s 1947–1955 administration through his successors, including the city’s first and second black mayors, the city’s first female mayor, the city’s first non-Irish mayor since 1933, and finally, the Daley “double,” Richard J. and Richard M. Witness the excitement as City Hall rolls out the welcome wagon for traveling kings and queens, dignitaries, and counts, as well as figures of great historic import, including Queen Elizabeth, Princess Diana, Mikhail Gorbachev, Bishop Tutu, and Frank Sinatra. View rare scenes of the “builder” mayor tradition and the construction of such architectural triumphs as the Sears Tower, which was then the world’s-tallest building. With over 200 photographs accompanied by informative captions, this volume highlights a variety of Chicago’s ethnic festivals, parades, and political campaigns, skillfully bringing each scene to life.

A View From Chicago's City Hall: Mid-Century to Millenium (Images of America: Illinois)

Green, Paul M.

Book by Holli, Melvin, Green, Paul

Chicago: A View From City Hall (IL) (Images of America)

History

Americas

Arcadia Pub

Discusses the issues in the 1983 Chicago mayoral primary and election and examines the reasons for the victory of Harold Washington

The Making of the Mayor of Chicago, 1983

Eerdmans Pub.Co.

Presents the life and political career of Harold Washington, the first black mayor of Chicago

Bashing Chicago Traditions: Harold Washington's Last Campaign, Chicago, 1987

Book by Green, Paul M., Holli, Melvin G.

Restoration 1989: Chicago Elects a New Daley

Lyceum Books

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Holli, Melvin G.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Holli, Melvin G.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Holli, Melvin G.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The American Mayor: The Best and the Worst Big-City Leaders

The American Mayor: The Best and the Worst Big-City Leaders

Biographical Dictionary of American Mayors, 1820-1980: Big City Mayors

Reform in Detroit: Hazen S. Pingree and Urban Politics (Urban Life in America)

University of Illinois at Chicago (IL) (College History Series)

A View From Chicago's City Hall: Mid-Century to Millenium (Images of America: Illinois)

Chicago: A View From City Hall (IL) (Images of America)

The Making of the Mayor of Chicago, 1983

Bashing Chicago Traditions: Harold Washington's Last Campaign, Chicago, 1987

Restoration 1989: Chicago Elects a New Daley