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Title: Tip O'Neill and the Democratic Century by John A. Farrell ISBN: 0-316-18570-1 Publisher: Back Bay Books Pub. Date: September, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.61 (18 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Manual for Political Wannabes
Comment: This book is an excellent resource for all who aspire to be politicians and wish to learn the the way the political process really works in our nation. John Farrell does an excellent job in profiling Tip O'Neill and putting O'Neill's actions and principles in the context of the issues of his day (i.e. the New Deal, the Vietnam War, Watergate and other issues). When doing this, Farrell uses the phrase " it was in this backdrop.... When writing a biography, it is crucial to explain the currrent events that impacted the world of those being profiled. Farrell mastered this principle of biography writing. O'Neill is a fascinating individual to study, i was especially taken back at how prevalent is the belief that machnine politics is always corrupt and the politicians that it produces are inept. This is not true. O'Neill was typecasted as a corrupt machine politician by some, in my view, because of his down to earth personality and some of his political tactics. The Kennedy's also used this "machine" to their advantage but they were never viewed by anyone as machine politicians. Although I am not Irish, there was clearly some anti-Irish prejudice in the attitudes of some who disliked O'Neill.This book gave me a very clear picture of Irish American history and the role politics played in its history. Farrell also touches on the ideological rift in the Democratic party. I highly recommend this book and i hope this review was useful.
Andres J. Ledesma, New York City
Rating: 5
Summary: wonderful, evocative portrait of a major political figure
Comment: John A. Farrell's "Tip O'Neill and the Democratic Century" earns a place with the finest works of journalism and political history - first because the author sets himself two lofty goals, and second because he accomplishes both of them in grand fashion. First, Farrell's book is a wonderful portrait of a preeminent New Deal politician - a man who not only came of age in the Great Depression, but who also found his political moorings there. The central goal of Tip O'Neill's political philosophy was aiding his constituents, block-by-block and neighborhood-by-neighborhood. Farrell makes clear that the former Speaker had an intimate connection with the folks who elected him, and that, however high he rose, O'Neill was always eminently down-to-earth and approachable. In reading this book against the backdrop of a political culture has been overtaken by endless polling, focus groups and televised spinmeisters, it's reaffirming to know that there was a time not so long ago when a major politician chatted up voters in a local barbershop, or steadfastly bought his suits at the same haberdasher decade after decade.
A second, but no less significant achievement of Farrell's book, is as a detailed political history of the last century. If one only considers the two political figures that bookended O'Neill's career - at the start, Boston Mayor and flamboyant rogue James Michael Curley and at the end President Ronald Reagan - that gives a strong sense of just how much politics and public life changed over that 50 or so years. O'Neill began his career in a time when concern about the size of government was subsidiary to the goals it was intended to accomplish; a time when politicians and the public were trained on eradicating societal ills such as poverty, homelessness, joblessness, illiteracy and so on. By the time O'Neill left public life, the size and efficiency of government, particularly spending on domestic social programs, was a drum for self-proclaimed fiscal hawks to bang. Speaker O'Neill left public life in a time when Social Darwinism and exploitation of the "alienated voter" defined political discourse; a time when selfishness, greed, retrenchment from public life, and resentment of the veterans, the poor, the sick, and the mentally ill were rampant. So thoroughly denuded were the ideals of O'Neill's earlier career that President Reagan could connect with a wide swath of voters by repeatedly telling a false story about a Chicago "welfare queen" who rode around in a limousine and who ate lobster for dinner every night. Farrell shows O'Neill as someone who railed publicly against Reagan and his ilk, and who considered the President, "an Irishman who forgot where he came from." Indeed, Farrell includes wonderful color about O'Neill and his wildly divergent private and public relationships with Reagan. In the end, Farrell's book succeeds because it brings its subject into full bloom; he paints pictures not only of O'Neill, but also of the times in which he lived and politicked. And that is what lifts this biography to the level of greatness.
Rating: 5
Summary: The Last Democratic Titan
Comment: John Farrell's biography of Tip O'Neill will stand as the definative book on the legendary Speaker of the House for years to come. The Tip O'Neill that emerges from these pages is a very complex man. Farrell does not needlessly canonize O'Neill or portray him as the caricature that many of his fans and detractors have painted him as. Instead, Farrell let's O'Neill's words and actions speak for themselves - and what a narrative it is!
The striking thing about Tip O'Neill that comes through in the book is how authentic he was to himself, to others, and to his principles. In one of the Democratic Party's darkest hours - the beginning of the Reagan Revolution - Tip O'Neill stood as the last Democratic titan, one who was willing to take on the slings and arrows of his critics in order to preserve all that he, and his party, worked and stood for. Regardless of your political persuasion, O'Neill's courage and loyalty are worthy of admiration. Unfortunately, they simply don't make leaders like that anymore.
As a fan of political biogrpahies, I found 'Tip O'Neill and the Democratic Century' to be fair, balanced, highly readable, entertaining, inspiring, and compelling. This book is the best political biography I have read in years and I highly recommend it to all.
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Title: All Politics Is Local: And Other Rules of the Game by Tip O'Neill, Gary Hymel ISBN: 1558504702 Publisher: Adams Media Corporation Pub. Date: 01 January, 1995 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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Title: Man of the House: The Life & Political Memoirs of Speaker Tip O'Neill by Thomas P. Jr. O'Neill ISBN: 0394565053 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 01 August, 1987 List Price(USD): $100.00 |
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Title: Fat Man in a Middle Seat: Forty Years of Covering Politics by Jack Germond ISBN: 0375758674 Publisher: Random House Trade Pub. Date: 08 January, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World by Margaret Macmillan, Richard Holbrooke ISBN: 0375760520 Publisher: Random House Trade Pub. Date: 09 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The Clinton Wars by Sidney Blumenthal ISBN: 0374125023 Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux Pub. Date: 20 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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