''Boss: Richard J. Daley of Chicago'' is a 1971

non-fiction Non-fiction (or nonfiction) is any document or content (media), media content that attempts, in good faith, to convey information only about the real life, real world, rather than being grounded in imagination. Non-fiction typically aims to pre ...

book by ''

Chicago Daily News The ''Chicago Daily News'' was an afternoon daily newspaper in the midwestern United States, published between 1875 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois. History The ''Daily News'' was founded by Melville E. Stone, Percy Meggy, and William Dougherty ...

'' columnist

Mike Royko Michael Royko Jr. (September 19, 1932 – April 29, 1997) was an American newspaper columnist from Chicago, Illinois. Over his 42-year career, he wrote more than 7,500 daily columns for the '' Chicago Daily News'', the ''Chicago Sun-Times'', an ...

, about six-term Chicago mayor

Richard J. Daley Richard Joseph Daley (May 15, 1902 – December 20, 1976) was an American politician who served as the mayor of Chicago from 1955, and the chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party from 1953, until his death. He has been called "the last of ...

(1902–1976) and the

political machine In the politics of representative democracies, a political machine is a party organization that recruits its members by the use of tangible incentives (such as money or political jobs) and that is characterized by a high degree of leadership c ...

and

municipal government A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

over which Daley presided.

Overview

''Boss'' outlines Daley's Irish working-class origins and his step-by-step rise through the rough-and-tumble hierarchy of the Chicago Democratic party machine, until he was first elected mayor in 1955 and went on to become influential in national politics. The book describes

patronage Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, art patronage refers to the support that princes, popes, and other wealthy and influential people ...

and political strong-arm tactics in vivid detail and contains stinging depictions of

precinct captain A precinct captain, also known as a precinct chairman, precinct delegate, precinct committee officer or precinct committeeman, is an elected official in the American political party system. The captain establishes a direct link between a politica ...

aldermen An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking membe ...

bureaucrat A bureaucrat is a member of a bureaucracy and can compose the administration of any organization of any size, although the term usually connotes someone within an institution of government. The term ''bureaucrat'' derives from "bureaucracy", wh ...

s, judges, the

Chicago Police Department The Chicago Police Department (CPD) is the primary law enforcement agency of the city of Chicago, Illinois, United States, under the jurisdiction of the Chicago City Council. It is the second-largest Law enforcement in the United States#Local, ...

, and of Daley himself. The final chapters cover the turbulent 1960s, with social unrest surrounding the Civil Rights Movement, violent confrontations between protesters and authorities, and the notorious, rowdy Chicago Democratic convention in 1968. The book concludes in 1970 with a determined, unrepentant Mayor Daley still in office.

Reception

Public and critical reception of ''Boss'' was solidly favorable and the book spent 26 weeks on ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list, from April 4 through September 26, 1971. Writing in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'',

Studs Terkel Louis "Studs" Terkel (May 16, 1912 – October 31, 2008) was an American writer, historian, actor, and broadcaster. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1985 for ''The Good War'' and is best remembered for his oral histor ...

praised Royko as "Chicago's most incisive and impertinent journalist since

Finley Peter Dunne Finley Peter Dunne (born Peter Dunne; July 10, 1867 – April 24, 1936) was an American humorist, journalist and writer from Chicago. In 1898 Dunne published ''Mr. Dooley in Peace and in War'', his first collection of the nationally syndicated M ...

" and added "only he could have written this book". Royko, said Terkel, writes with "a street wit, an elegant irony and a cool, though far from detached, indignation" to produce "a stunning portrait" that "probes not only into the psyche of a neighborhood bully but into the nature of the city that has so honored him". ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'' called ''Boss'' a "classic" that gives "a detailed and, for some, eye-opening account of Daley's rise to absolute control of the Chicago Democratic political machine", adding that it "provides sardonic and sometimes hilarious reading". ''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus. The magazine's publisher, Kirkus Media, is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction, no ...

'' said that Royko "convincingly and energetically" describes Daley's rise and the many scandals and intrigues threaded through his career. "Without either sentimentality or moralism, Royko traces the integuments of machine politics: key offices; the significance of each scandal; the way Daley has used his dual status as party chairman and mayor to consolidate a one-man rule any Soviet apparatchik would envy". In a retrospective 2012 review in ''

The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers p ...

'', Keith Koeneman (biographer of Daley's son,

Richard M. Daley Richard Michael Daley (born April 24, 1942) is an American politician who served as the 54th mayor of Chicago, Illinois, from 1989 to 2011. Daley was elected mayor in 1989 and was reelected five times until declining to run for a seventh ter ...

) recommended ''Boss'' as "one of the great books of American literature", saying it "has the qualities of a perfect photograph, capturing the unique essence of a person at a particular—and fleeting—moment in time".

References

1971 non-fiction books Biographies about politicians History of Chicago Books about American politicians {{US-poli-bio-book-stub