Heavily researched, strictly respectful of the facts, and first-rate reading

books:


	• The Prince of the City: Giuliani, New York and the Genius of American Life Fred Siegel Encounter Books, 2006 - 374 pages average customer review:based on 21 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The Real Story About Mayor Guilian's Revolutionary Impact

Bottom Line: A Great Read - If you are interested in New York City

What You Will Learn: This book provides a very positive, but not one-sided perspective on Mayor Guiliani's political life. If you like the inside baseball type stories, including books by Bob Woodward, you will enjoy these details of how Guiliani dealt with all the great characters in New York City, including other famous politicians like Al Sharpton, Congressman Charlie Rangel, and Governor Mariou Cuomo.

Parting Shot: If you have even a passing interest in Mayor Guiliani or New York Politics this will be a great read for you.

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prince

This book gave an interesting description of the Giuliani years and the context in which he came to power. It was quite discouraging how so many other New York politicians put their own power and politics above the interested of New Yorkers.

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The inner workings of a city in trouble

As other reviewers have pointed out, this is as much the story of New York City since the 1960s as it is of Rudy Giuliani. I ordered it to read more about the mayor since he has become a serious candidate for president. The story of the city and its problems was almost more engaging. The left liberal political culture had run the city into the ground. CUNY, the "poor man's Harvard" had collapsed into a city-wide babysitting service. Teachers who had graduated from CUNY were illiterate and were training an illiterate generation of high school "graduates." The author points out how Giuliani became aware of the magnitude of the problem when protest signs held by teachers were filled with misspellings. I also learned a lot about Al Sharpton I wish I didn't know. The fact that Giuliani was able to master this collection of anarchists and hustlers and hacks, and get things done, is a great testimonial to his talents. The errors he made are also on full display so this is not a partisan hagiography. The mayor is there, warts and all. An excellent biography of Giuliani and of the city, itself.

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Heavily researched, strictly respectful of the facts, and first-rate reading

Written by professor of history Fred Siegel, The Prince of the City: Giuliani, New York and the Genius of American Life is an eye-opening look at how Mayor Rudy Giuliani successfully turned around one of America's most troubled cities, beset with budgetary woes, white flight, and skyrocketing crime rates, with an efficiency and eye toward achieving results worthy of Machiavelli's "The Prince". The Prince of the City is as much the story of modern New York itself as it is a portrayal of Giuliani, with especial focus on the flaws of Giuliani's predecessor, Mayor Dinkins, particularly Dinkins' vision of social programs that simply failed to prevent crime as effectively as the deterrent of a strong police force. Giuliani's landmark reforms, such as facilitating a police department that shared information more openly and laterally, merging duplicate bureaucracies, pushing workfare over welfare, and much more created a positive cycle of New Yorker pride banishing fear. The Prince of the City also recounts the many attacks on Giuliani's career, and troubles and fallout from such disastrous incidents as the police shooting death of Diallo. The final chapters offer a dramatic account of the September 11th attacks, revealing how Giuliani's eight years in office prepared the city to endure and properly respond to the tragedy. Though written from a conservative perspective, The Prince of the City is heavily researched, strictly respectful of the facts, and first-rate reading for biographers, historians, and anyone wishing to learn more about Giuliani as a statesman, a politician, a moral leader, and a successful problem solver beset with a myriad of complex quandaries. Highly recommended.

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a fine biography of one of our most successful politicians to date

This is as much a story of the shark invested waters of being a mayor of New York as it is a biography of Guiliani.
Siegel likes Rudi and it comes through but more importantly Siegel likes New York and his detailed knowledge of its inner workings of this most American city provides a valued backdrop for a compelling tale of electoral politics. The certainty is that politics is race and race is politics and the mothers' milk are jobs and patronage.
He does not spare Dinkins or Pataki or Bloomberg from criticism saving particular aim at Al Sharpton and his ruination of the failed electoral runs of Ruth Meissenger and Mark Green. Coincidentially, at the same time, reading this book, Gentleman Al appeared on MSNBC's Hardball Show to chat and watching the fawning Chris Matthews compliment this race baiting huckster, it was clear that his sins of his past were wiped away by the power of being a celebrity. Conversely, will Guiliani's substantial achievements in governance be wiped away by the media charade which passes for political commentary in this time and age? This book helps keeping those successes front and center.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

The Prince of the City is at once a fascinating character study of one of America's most charismatic public figures, a history of New York over the last forty years, and a classic inquiry into the issue of how cities thrive or die. Siegel's story culminates with a dramatic account of September 11, 2001, revealing how Giuliani's s eight years in office had prepared him and the city to rise to this tragic occasion and how in the aftermath of the attack he became America's Mayor. Siegel concludes with a look at how Guiliani's successor, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, has handled his legacy and at what lies in Guiliani's political future.

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