The Rascal King: The Life And Times Of James Michael Curley (1874-1958)
by Jack Beatty
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Twice-jailed scoundrel and the people's champion, builder of hospitals and schools and shameless grafter, compelling orator and master of political farce, James Michael Curley was the stuff of legend long before his life became fiction in Edwin O'Connor's classic novel The Last Hurrah. As mayor of Boston, as congressman, as governor of Massachusetts, Curley rose from the Irish slums in a career extending from the Progressive Era of Teddy Roosevelt to the ascendancy of JFK. Beatty's show more spellbinding story of this remarkable man-and of his city, his people, and his times-is biography at its best. show lessTags
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4304 The Rascal King The Life and Times of James Michael Curley 1874-1958, by Jack Beatty (read 23 Apr 2007) Curley was mayor of Boston four times, in Congress for three years, and governor from 1935 to 1937. He had a tremendous hold on his political supporters, despite the crooked things he did. The account of his political doings is full of interest. He was always running for something and sometimes he did good things, even though he went to prison twice and should have been there oftener. He inspired the novel The Great Hurrah, which I read May 28, 1961, and gloried in its depiction of a guy like him. Curley in a way was like Huey Long, but fortunately Curley could be beaten at times, whereas Long could not be, no matter how crooked show more he was. This is a great political biography. show less
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Jack Beatty is a senior editor at "The Atlantic Monthly," & the author of "The Rascal King," a biography of the legendary Irish-American politician James Michael Curley, & "The World According to Peter Drucker," a biography of the influential thinker. He lives in Boston. (Bowker Author Biography)
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- Nonfiction, History, Biography & Memoir, General Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 974.4 — History & geography History of North America Northeastern United States (New England and Middle Atlantic states) Massachusetts
- LCC
- F70 .C85 .B44 — Local History of the United States, Canada and Latin America United States local history Massachusetts
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