Challenging the Daley Machine: A Chicago Alderman's Memoir (Chicago Lives) - Hardcover

Despres, Leon M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0810122235 ISBN 13: 9780810122239

Verlag: Northwestern University Press, 2005

Inhaltsangabe

Winner, 2006 Illinois State Historical Society Book Award
Winner, 2007 The Hyde Park Historical Society Paul Cornell Award

Political war stories from a thorn in the side of Chicago's famous Boss

In 1955, south-sider Leon Despres was elected to the Chicago City Council-the same year that Paddy Bauler famously uttered that "Chicago ain't ready for reform." Ready or not, Chicago got twenty years of reform efforts from Despres, one of the few independents in the council and the most liberal alderman in the city. His demand to cut out the corrupt sale of city driveway permits made him enemies from the very beginning. Over the years his crusades to ban discrimination, preserve Chicago landmark buildings, and gain equality for African-Americans-when Daley-beholden African-American council members refused to help-threw wrench after wrench into the Machine. And, not incidentally, changed the city.

But Challenging the Daley Machine is more than a memoir. It's a historical portrait of the way things were done under the Boss, when changing times and a changing city forced the Machine to confront the problems Despres championed. His battles against the seemingly monolithic Machine are also an inspiration to anyone who is facing long odds, but is convinced he/she is on the side of right.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Leon M. Despres was born in 1908 in Chicago. He graduated from the University of Chicago Law School in 1929. Since leaving the Chicago City Council in 1975 he has served as a parliamentarian for the Jane Byrne and Harold Washington administrations and worked as an attorney, teacher, and lecturer. Despres lives in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago.

Kenan Heise spent seven years as a Franciscan monk before starting a thirty-year career at the Chicago Tribune. His many books include Chicago the Beautiful (Bonus, 2001) and Resurrection Mary: A Ghost Story (Chicago Historical Bookworks, 1990).

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Northwestern University Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2005
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0810122235
• ISBN 13: 9780810122239
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 168
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: GS1 Slovakia; https://www.gs1sk.org; ; Nantersk� 23; Žilina; 010 08; Slowakei