A New Approach to Politics

Today's class examines the demise of machine politics--starting with material from a book that the historian Alan Brinkley has termed among the best on American politics, Michael McGerr's study of political participation. We'll also be taking a look at one of the classic primary texts of the period, courtesy of William Plunkitt of Tammany Hall.

READING:

bullet McGerr, The Decline of Popular Politics, chapters 1-6.
bullet Plunkitt of Tammany Hall (please read the introduction and chapters 1 and 2)