Events › Adult Book Discussion: Clout City the Rise and Fall of the Chicago Political Machine

Please join the RJ Daley-Bridgeport Library for a community discussion of Clout City the Rise and Fall of the Chicago Political Machine by Dominic Pacyga.

In politics, clout is the Chicago Way: insider access granted or denied, favors given or withheld, payoffs made or received. But Chicago clout is more than that. It's the absolute currency of a social, cultural, and political order that is self-reinforcing, self-dealing, and ultimately self-sealing in its contempt for anything outside of it. Or at least, it was. Here, Dominic A. Pacyga reveals how cultural, ethnic, and religious forces created this distinctive system-and ultimately led to its collapse. Tracing clout's origins in the Irish Catholic neighborhood of Bridgeport, Pacyga shows how communal ties can be a force for good and also the deepest wellspring of corruption

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