{"product_id":"clout-city-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-chicago-political-machine","title":"Clout City: The Rise and Fall of the Chicago Political Machine","description":"\u003cdiv data-a-expander-name=\"book_description_expander\" data-a-expander-collapsed-height=\"280\" class=\"a-expander-collapsed-height a-row a-expander-container a-spacing-base a-expander-partial-collapse-container\" style=\"max-height: none; height: 280px;\"\u003e \u003cdiv data-expanded=\"false\" class=\"a-expander-content a-expander-partial-collapse-content\" style=\"padding-bottom: 20px;\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eUnearths the religious and cultural roots of a powerful political machine that empowered some everyday Chicagoans but ruled all of the city for decades.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e In politics, clout is essential. Too often, it determines whether insider access is granted or denied, favors are given or withheld, and payoffs are made or received. But Chicago clout, as we know it today, is even more potent than that‚Äîit‚Äôs the absolute currency of a social, cultural, and political order that is self-reinforcing and self-dealing. Or, at least, it was.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e In \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eClout City\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, award-winning historian Dominic A. Pacyga reveals how cultural, ethnic, and religious forces created this distinctive system‚Äîand ultimately led to its collapse. Tracing clout‚Äôs origins in the Irish Catholic‚Äìdominated working-class neighborhood of Bridgeport, shaped by De La Salle Institute and home to the legendary Daley family, Pacyga shows how communal ties can be a force for good and also the deepest wellspring of corruption. He maps Chicago‚Äôs unique politics to its remarkable history, from the Great Fire of 1871 through its rise and decline as an industrial center to its emergence as a global city in the early twenty-first century. With deep research and firsthand experience from a lifetime in the city, Pacyga argues that Chicago‚Äôs politics is understood best as a mixture of cultural and religious influences and more worldly pursuits, exploring how both Jewish and Catholic communalism played central roles in the creation and sustenance of the Chicago machine.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Chicago‚Äôs politics today aren‚Äôt as defined by its distinctive brand of clout. But they are shaped by clout‚Äôs decline and the ghost of the machine. Pacyga‚Äôs tour of the city‚Äôs multilayered past is an indispensable guide to its present and future. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e  \u003c\/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"a-expander-header a-expander-partial-collapse-header\" style=\"opacity: 1; display: block;\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"a-expander-content-fade\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"javascript:void(0)\" role=\"button\" data-action=\"a-expander-toggle\" class=\"a-declarative\" data-a-expandev\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"University of Chicago Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50319267496221,"sku":"9780226733708","price":24.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0901\/5692\/5213\/files\/9780226733708.jpg?v=1757019045","url":"https:\/\/bookdelico.com\/products\/clout-city-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-chicago-political-machine","provider":"Book Delico ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}