Among the great manuals of urban politics in America, none is more charming or instructive than the plain talks of George Washington Plunkitt, a district leader—that is, a ward boss—of New York City’s powerful Tammany Hall at the turn of the twentieth century. Born in a shantytown on Manhattan’s upper West Side in 1842, Plunkitt died a rich and famous man in 1924. The “very plain talks” that made his reputation were published first in the newspapers and then, in 1905, as a book. They took place at what Plunkitt referred to as his office: Graziano’s bootblack stand in the old county courthouse off Foley Square, and were recorded by William L. Riordon of the New York Evening Post.
