The Prince of Providence: The True Story of Buddy Cianci, America's Most Notorious Mayor, Some Wiseguys, and the Feds
by Mike Stanton
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Description
Welcome to Providence, Rhode Island, where corruption is entertainment and Mayor Buddy Cianci presided over the longest-running lounge act in American politics. In The Prince of Providence, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mike Stanton tells a classic story of wiseguys, feds, and politicians on a carousel of crime and redemption. Buddy Cianci was part urban visionary, part Tony Soprano-a flawed political genius in the mold of Huey Long and James Michael Curley. His lust for power cost him show more his marriage, his family, and close friendships. Yet he also revitalized the city of Providence, where ethnic factions jostle with old-moneyed New Englanders and black-clad artists from the Rhode Island School of Design rub shoulders with scam artists from City Hall. For nearly a quarter of a century, Cianci dominated this uneasy melting pot. During his first administration, twenty-two political insiders were convicted of corruption. In 1984, Cianci resigned after pleading guilty to felony assault, for torturing a man he suspected of sleeping with his estranged wife. In 1990, in a remarkable comeback, Cianci was elected mayor once again; he went on to win national acclaim for transforming a dying industrial city into a trendy arts and tourism mecca. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Fascinating Rogue, but book is exhaustingly detailed and poorly organized. Brilliant bits, however. At least Cianci invaded no countries and was no worse than the regime he displaced. With better editing and restraint, this book could have been a fascinating account of a really colorful guy.
As someone who lived in RI for most of their life and met Buddy on many occasions, this book is pretty spot-on for what occurred
A great subject, but poorly written and poorly edited. Too many non sequiturs and irrelevant sidebars made the book twice as long and half as good as it should have been. It was almost as if the author decided he needed to use all of his notes and threw them in at random.
Would have benefited from a stringent editor. Readable account of Cianci's career by a reporter/observer towards the end of his mayoralty.
amazing level of corruption....
Simply apalling, this man.
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Author Information
2 Works 203 Members
Mike Stanton heads the investigation reporting team at The Providence Journal.
Awards and Honors
Notable Lists
Common Knowledge
- Important places
- Providence, Rhode Island, USA; Rhode Island, USA
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, Biography & Memoir, General Nonfiction, History, Politics and Government
- DDC/MDS
- 974.5 — History & geography History of North America Northeastern United States (New England and Middle Atlantic states) Rhode Island
- LCC
- F89 .P953 .C537 — Local History of the United States, Canada and Latin America United States local history Rhode Island
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 170
- Popularity
- 192,046
- Reviews
- 6
- Rating
- (3.60)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 6
- ASINs
- 6
