It is a very timely book indeed, I've thought of it often the last few years. Also relevant, though even more obscure and hard to come by, is Race War in High School: The Ten-Year Destruction of Franklin K. Lane High School in Brooklyn by Harold Saltzman.
The wokes of today are simply the New Left of the late 60s, metastasized. What a shock the Democratic Party is in for nationally when it turns out that a majority of Latinos and Asians are actually not "People of Color" who line up meekly behind Yale-educated Abolish Prison Black Nationalists, but rather are the Canarsie Italians of the 21st century.
I was just talking about that book the other weekend and how it reminds me of today. I think you miss some parallels with the Adams victory and the pushback of the elites represented by progressive movement in NYC which you are part of. This time it is middle class black voters joining with others and saying no to the progressives of Brownstone Brooklyn and the UWS. The rejection is no as virulent and turbulent as what happened in Canarsie but it is a complete rejection of what Progressives have tried to do citywide.
Good essay. Thanks! Canarsie’s demographics changed fast.
The NYC political clubhouses of old can’t be revived because the patronage they had (with the important exception of judgeships) has pretty much disappeared thanks to “good government” reforms, the rise of not-for-profit agencies, etc.
The services clubs provided the neighborhood were part and parcel of their power (and was already diminished 50 years ago!) and that is what made it possible for them to deliver votes. The arrangement was transactional, not ideological.
By contrast, some of the biggest political clubs today grew out of “reform” anti-machine organizations. So it is a different animal. They are ideological and for hobbyists, and the idea of performing services and getting loyalty from the locals in return is not really part of the equation.
Re your mention of Meade Esposito--this ’72 feature on him by Hendrik Hertzberg is very well done.. Esposito was a McGovern supporter…who’d of thunk it.
Terrific essay. Stanley Fink was also a terrific Speaker of the State Assembly. He built a terrific legislative staff that allowed the Assembly to play a major role in determining state policies. By the way, the public high schools of Brooklyn produced the current Secretary of the Treasury, the Senate Majority Leader, and the Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee.
Great piece, I'd be curious what the voter turnout was in this era, because one thing that's hard for me to wrap my head around is that with lower voter turnout in non-presidential elections and the atrophying of local institutions it's hard to know just how much collective political voices are being heard if only 10% of people come out to the polls. Either way this further confirms my own need to study and better understand NYC's 20th century political clubs.
Good essay — when political scientist Eitan Hersh went on Ezra Klein’s podcast, he also advocated for a resurrection of the party boss (eg transactional politics) as a unexploited political strategy in today’s landscape.
People, like nation states, don't' have permanent friends or enemies, only interests.
Now the "Asian Issue" will far harder to deal with.
1. The WASP elites made their fortunes from selling opium
2. The Burlingame treaty was signed when Abraham Lincoln was president, and the 10 000+ civil rights lawsuits citing it are a matter of public record.
3. The arguments used to keep the Jews and Italians in line are the exact same talking points used to justify the Chinese Exclusion Act and ethnic cleansing up and down the west coast.
4. The Chinese Exclusion Act is organized labors first legislative victory. This is labor history and those towns had a strong progressive tradition.
It is a very timely book indeed, I've thought of it often the last few years. Also relevant, though even more obscure and hard to come by, is Race War in High School: The Ten-Year Destruction of Franklin K. Lane High School in Brooklyn by Harold Saltzman.
The wokes of today are simply the New Left of the late 60s, metastasized. What a shock the Democratic Party is in for nationally when it turns out that a majority of Latinos and Asians are actually not "People of Color" who line up meekly behind Yale-educated Abolish Prison Black Nationalists, but rather are the Canarsie Italians of the 21st century.
I was just talking about that book the other weekend and how it reminds me of today. I think you miss some parallels with the Adams victory and the pushback of the elites represented by progressive movement in NYC which you are part of. This time it is middle class black voters joining with others and saying no to the progressives of Brownstone Brooklyn and the UWS. The rejection is no as virulent and turbulent as what happened in Canarsie but it is a complete rejection of what Progressives have tried to do citywide.
Good essay. Thanks! Canarsie’s demographics changed fast.
The NYC political clubhouses of old can’t be revived because the patronage they had (with the important exception of judgeships) has pretty much disappeared thanks to “good government” reforms, the rise of not-for-profit agencies, etc.
The services clubs provided the neighborhood were part and parcel of their power (and was already diminished 50 years ago!) and that is what made it possible for them to deliver votes. The arrangement was transactional, not ideological.
By contrast, some of the biggest political clubs today grew out of “reform” anti-machine organizations. So it is a different animal. They are ideological and for hobbyists, and the idea of performing services and getting loyalty from the locals in return is not really part of the equation.
Re your mention of Meade Esposito--this ’72 feature on him by Hendrik Hertzberg is very well done.. Esposito was a McGovern supporter…who’d of thunk it.
https://www.nytimes.com/1972/12/10/archives/-hi-boss-said-the-judge-to-meade-esposito-the-powerful-kings-county.html?smid=tw-share
Terrific essay. Stanley Fink was also a terrific Speaker of the State Assembly. He built a terrific legislative staff that allowed the Assembly to play a major role in determining state policies. By the way, the public high schools of Brooklyn produced the current Secretary of the Treasury, the Senate Majority Leader, and the Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee.
Great piece, I'd be curious what the voter turnout was in this era, because one thing that's hard for me to wrap my head around is that with lower voter turnout in non-presidential elections and the atrophying of local institutions it's hard to know just how much collective political voices are being heard if only 10% of people come out to the polls. Either way this further confirms my own need to study and better understand NYC's 20th century political clubs.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0029138663
Good essay — when political scientist Eitan Hersh went on Ezra Klein’s podcast, he also advocated for a resurrection of the party boss (eg transactional politics) as a unexploited political strategy in today’s landscape.
People, like nation states, don't' have permanent friends or enemies, only interests.
Now the "Asian Issue" will far harder to deal with.
1. The WASP elites made their fortunes from selling opium
2. The Burlingame treaty was signed when Abraham Lincoln was president, and the 10 000+ civil rights lawsuits citing it are a matter of public record.
3. The arguments used to keep the Jews and Italians in line are the exact same talking points used to justify the Chinese Exclusion Act and ethnic cleansing up and down the west coast.
4. The Chinese Exclusion Act is organized labors first legislative victory. This is labor history and those towns had a strong progressive tradition.