The book Plunkitt of Tammany Hall can leave readers with mixed feelings about politics from Plunkitt’s perspective. Plunkitt, himself, used some questionable tactics while he was a politician and defends what he did; such as the difference between honest graft and dishonest graft. Plunkitt lived in the world of politics for forty plus years and thrived in the middle of it all with his political machine, Tammany Hall. The views Plunkitt held differ from those of the Founding Fathers of the United
George Washington Plunkitt was a complicated politician from New York in the 1900’s. He had his own questionable way of seeing what’s right and what’s wrong. Plunkitt’s Ideas of right a wrong sometimes seemed to be off. However, some of his ideas about things that needed to be reformed were as true then as they are now. Plunkitt seemed to be a man that knew how to get what he wanted out of people with very little effort. From the perspective of an outsider this could make him hard to trust,
Plunkitt of Tammany Hall 1. Honest Graft and Dishonest Graft- When Plunkitt was tipped off about something in the city or someone wanting to built a park or something, he sees the opportunity and he takes it. He buys up the land before they do. When they see that they are going to need the land, he sells it to them at a much higher price than what he paid for it, giving him a nice profit. That is honest graft. Several politicians are accused of stealing dollars from the state’s treasury, this
George Washington Plunkitt of Tammany Hall Everybody is talkin' these days about Tammany men growin' rich on graft, but nobody thinks of drawin' the distinction between honest graft and dishonest graft." With this sentence in the first chapter Plunkitt sets the tone for his short treatise on New York City politics while Tammany Hall ran the show. George Washington Plunkitt was a senator in New York during the turn of the 19th Century to the 20th Century. He was very successful in politics
“An Analysis of Plunkitt of Tammany Hall” William Bryce History 1302 Austin Community College November 30, 2011 The purpose of this book report is to analyze the themes in Plunkitt of Tammany Hall by William L. Riordon. Riordon’s purpose is to educate people about politics and to stimulate reform in their corrupt political system. The first theme of this book is Plunkitt’s use of patronage. He openly discusses quid pro quo: he gives people jobs, opportunities, and welfare services in
The Industrial Revolution that occurred in the late Nineteenth Century brought many new jobs that were drastically different to the jobs that previous Americans held. While agricultural jobs still existed and were vitally important to the sustainability of the American economy, the new factory jobs that opened up created many new work opportunities for Americans and immigrants who came from Europe. However, the problem with all these new industrial jobs was that they had very poor working conditions
Kaung Myat Thu @ Keith Professor Traverso English – 119 14th October 2012 Media Influence the Identity and culture Over the last few decades, ever since the televisions and computers were invented, self ethnic identities have been influenced because of the progress in technology, which we commonly known as media, and whether the globe benefits from this approach or not has become a controversial issue amongst most of the people in the world. As what survey shows that a dominant group of peoples
corruption are nothing new when it comes to politics. Plunkitt of Tammany Hall and his political machines we're masters of such chicanery. The infamous Tammany Hall political machines dominated mid 19th century through 20th century politics in New York City. He explained in “Reciprocity in Patronage”, “what he says is, that you can’t keep an organization together without patronage. Men ain’t in politics for nothin’. They want something out of it” (47). Plunkitt was stern on patriotism, it came hand in hand
performing a bare minimum in terms of building infrastructure. Plunkitt wasn’t the greatest of people. He participated in criminal acts of graft and voting fraud, but he also did lots of good for the city he governed. A quote from a print published by him says, “I served the organization and made more big improvements for New York City than any other livin’ man” (Plunkitt). Even though the graft was illegal and could cause harm, Plunkitt only committed an honest graft for the improvement of New York
City in the Tammany Hall building led by Boss Tweed. William L. Riordan wrote about George Washington Plunkitt who worked under Boss Tweed. He would use insider knowledge to make a profit. Plunkitt would find out the city was going to build a jail, so he would buy the land for the jail at a low rate then sell it to the city at a high rate. This would create a profit to give back to Boss Tweed. Plunkitt would also help families that had their houses burnt down to get them to agree to anything he said