William L. Riordon's compiling and embroidering of Boss Plunkitt's
boastful comments on machine politics constitutes a minor classic
in American social history. in an introduction to this edition of
the political boss's remarks, James S. Olson, chairman of the
history department at Sam Houston State University, and James W.
Mooney of American University engage in a provocative exchange over
how the boss mentality as Plunkitt expressed it is to be judged.
Thereby they complicate and enrich a reader's perception of the
practical devices and ethical ambiguities of popular
politics.

"Tammany Hall was far more than a disinterested detached city
government for several million poor, working-class New Yorkers. It
was also a successful city government delivering municipal
services, a social welfare agency assisting the immigrant poor and
their children in adjusting to the new country, a political
interest group giving working-class people at least a modest voice
in an economic world increasingly dominated by rich
corporations."

--James S. Olson

"In essence: the machine politicos, for all their genuine
resonance with their constituencies, saw the average voter as a
creature of appetite; the scientific progressives, for all their
hauteur, expected something better of the public and were prepared
to work for it."

--James W. Mooney