Are cities governable? How much can America’s mayors realistically hope to accomplish? In this thoughtful and gripping political biography. Vincent Cannato brings us back to the tumultuous era of the late 1960s and early 1970s when Mayor John Lindsay fought to rescue New York City from the depths of crisis. A reformer with movie-star looks and a liberal Republican agenda, Lindsay brought glamom and hope to City Hall. After eight years as mayor, however, he left office fatigued and disillusioned, his political career in ruins. In telling Lindsay’s story. Cannato provides a keen study of American liberalism and paints a vivid picture of a city shaken by labor strikes, racial strife, fiscal troubles, rising crime, and antiwar protests.
“Essential reading for anyone interested in American cities or the 1960s.” —Washington Post
“An exhaustive and nuanced, compulsively readable narrative, salted with measured, on-target judgments. By far the best work to be done on Lindsay, this biography is an important contribution not only to the literature on New York City but to the broader fields of urban and political studies.” —Publishers Weekly
“A provocative history of a remarkable time in New York City and of a promising, ultimately weak political leader.” —Joyce Purnick, New York Times Book Review
“The most impressive work of New York City history since Robert Caro’s The Power Broker.” —John Podhoretz, National Review