The Rascal King:
McDonough, John E.
the same ground as in Authenticity, the and both the "Right" and the "Left" come ing to the ideals you choose, it appears that major difference being that it contains a under his...
...Price (including P&H): spoken admiration of Mussolini and an ers and book editors find it profitable to Hardcover $21.00...
...In the end, then, we French-speaking Quebeckers, and multi- in these traditional designations...
...In some sensinence (including John F. Kennedy's only politician in American history to es this is true: politicians are indeed a maternal grandfather, Mayor John "Ho- have been reelected from jail, but he was mirror of their society, and a kind of emney Fitz" Fitzgerald), Curley brashly surely alone in having twice been in jail bodiment of its potential...
...Though he is not a par- Oftentimes our judgment of a polititicularly memorable stylist, his writing here How far will we let our cian's behavior is compromised by the timis clear, direct, and refreshingly free of elected leaders go...
...What ing of unflattering disclosures...
...began long before Curley, reaching back the bad...
...At a time dle ground between unreasonable boosters and the knockers of individual- in human history when the meaning of our extremes...
...could not outweigh the negative...
...true: society is a mirror of its politicians...
...he was IRVING MALIN teaches at City College in culture of Boston during a fifty-year po- a political and cultural hero, an axial figNew York...
...El ments about the worth of any culture (our own included) ought to follow from our study of that culture...
...How far do good works, ethnic or ity makes hard judgments even more difREVIEWERS socio-economic privation, or extraordi- ficult...
...It's been that way with Curley and nary charisma make up for one's mis- me-my mother worked for twelve years DAVID McCABE is a graduate student in deeds...
...World Policy Institute specializing in SovietAmerican relations...
...goans on the night of his mayoral vic- Even worse than these transgressions, It is largely up to the politicians which sotory: "It's our turn...
...Coughlin...
...His public works AreComing...
...For the Irish Americans...
...alliance with the fascistic Father Charles press the Islamic button, and national se- Pay by MasterCard, VISA, or check...
...Taylor cannot make that cal as well of the radical multicultural- standards and less likely to accept your ar- glass clear, for he is only human, but his ist's claim that all cultures are equally guments for failing to live up to them...
...At the same represented for his time what Harold while in office, at either end of his career, time-paradoxically-the opposite is also Washington declared to black Chica- a parenthesis of disgrace...
...Against multiculturalism's ism...
...He Are Comrisked his career by jilting the Al Smith ing...
...Atlantic Monthly edi- stood against him...
...Nothing is the Relevance of Religion in the Nineties, by Milton H. Keene...
...Indeed, one of the great in doing so I see your act of choice as itclose analysis of two practical issues: leg- virtues of Taylor's broad-minded approach self bestowing value...
...But while I am largely sympathetic to these poles, there may simply be no midWhile his discussion of each of these his viewpoint, I suspect there is a dilem- dle ground...
...At a time To Beatty, Curley's positive attributes when old threats have waned, the "Green f ©1OIiq prc , Ilnc...
...are the world's highest, while the bulk of projects at the start of the Great Depression i i The Muslims the globe's oil reserves sit beneath their anticipated much of the New Deal...
...He is also delight- are the limits of our toler- to overlook indiscretions of incumbent offully nonpartisan...
...worth listening to...
...his sights are set wide, ance of graft, demago- ficeholders that would never be tolerated guery, and other assorted with newcomers...
...the radical multiculturalist, however, presupposes the an- A MUTED HURRAH swer which our study is, or ought to be, in search of...
...As in the case of in- Curley (1874-1958) literature and film by Edwin O'Connor's dividualism, there is a need for external Jack Beatty The Last Hurrah, and tortured by personal standards when making cross-cultural Addison Wesley, $25, 571 pp...
...Instead, this was "the main thread in centuries to their native lands, and local- The Rascal King is a compelling and Curley' s public life: doing little things for ly to the 1840s and the burning of a rich journey through a hundred years of little people who repaid him in votes and Catholic convent by rampaging Nativists...
...I find the answer in the writings of the century, and though other Irish ing far beyond the means of modest of Vaclav Havel: "They say a nation gets Americans preceded him in political prom- governmental salaries...
...federal jobs did not materialize...
...For that alone, he merits Taylor astutely points out, is that judg- hand, I respect your right to live accord- our serious attention...
...no way of Curley also made hismark on the national George Perkovich telling whether the alarm is false or exscene, leading the fight against immigra- aggerated...
...Mon-Sat 302.764-8918, 9.9 EST Commonweal 12 February 1993: 21...
...in judgment of him-for most people he Much of what Taylor says in these two John E. McDonough was either the complete hero or the conworks is, I think, eminently reasonable and summate villain...
...While we should start from "a presumption of equal worth" when confronting other cultures, says Taylor, multiculturalism must allow that we may find THE RASCAL KING nor, mayor, congressman, and alderman...
...If, on the other a bit less dim...
...Quality Paperback $14.25...
...Headline writ- Highly recommended...
...More than a million witnesses to poses...
...The problem with this view, as the threat to freedom...
...an uncanny sense of political theater and entertainment...
...thus, efforts go some way to making things seem worthy...
...Though 20: 12 February 1993 Commonweal the Irish had already become the domi- vants, the vacation homes, the lavish glob- So why did Boston voters buy him for nant ethnic group in Boston by the turn al trips-all were evidence of a man liv- so long...
...litical career that saw him elected gover- ure in their annals," writes Beatty...
...Curley where Curley's name was held in reverTimes...
...First Peril" of Islam can give new purpose to One Wellington Rd...
...the same ground as in Authenticity, the and both the "Right" and the "Left" come ing to the ideals you choose, it appears that major difference being that it contains a under his fire...
...We tend philosophical jargon...
...And personal familiarsins...
...change, these age-old questions are as ur- where shamrocks were carved into the JOHN E. McDONOUGH is a Democratic gent and difficult today as they were gen- shutters as Curley's way of thumbing his state representative from Boston...
...curity bureaucracies do, too...
...Iran's Lethal Secret...
...Boston history, and an in-depth chronicle gratitude, who as the years went by and But at a time when Irish political strength of the life of a man whose contributions they tasted something of the world's in- was nearing its peak, Curley did not at- and transgressions were monumental...
...America's foreign day in February 1950...
...He was not the the politicians it deserves...
...thus, the specter of islation recognizing the special status of is that it suggests the limitations inherent meaninglessness...
...erations ago in the times of Tammany Hall nose at Boston Brahmins and others who GEORGE PERKOVICH is a fellow of the and Teapot Dome...
...Those not helped by him were aware of other aspects of Curley's life: a spell- FEAR NO ISLAM binding and unforgettable voice and rhetoric...
...topics is instructive, his comments about ma looming behind much of Taylor's ar- But we should not fault Taylor for failmulticulturalism in particular demon- gument which may ultimately doom any ing to resolve this dilemma, for it is not strate his knack for finding sensible mid- attempt to find middle ground between the his alone but belongs to our age...
...These Another of our "Books of Distinction" Delano Roosevelt, became the local hero headlines have a tabloid flavor, but they PUSH BACK THE NIGHT: again with F.D.R.'s victory, and ended up appear in some of America's leading A Clergyman-Columnist's Views on the jilted suitor when allegedly promised newspapers and magazines...
...E Curley's funeral procession in 1958 testified to this loyalty...
...But difference, magnified manifold the value tempt to heal the wounds...
...must face the possibility that between culturalism...
...Oxford University Press, $22, 243 pp...
...left an indelible mark on the politics and ence...
...Birthrates in Islamic societies Semitism in the 1940s...
...and a deeply tragic and unending string of personal losses that hit him with regularity, in- THE ISLAMIC THREAT Yet the alarmists are shouting fire in a cluding the early deaths of his wife and Myth or Reality combustible theater-one in which exits four of his six children, two on the same John Esposito have not been marked...
...Iran bandwagon in 1932 to back Franklin Resurgent...
...tragedy, Curley had no neutrals standing evaluations as well...
...as Curley's maid in his famous (or infapolitical philosophy at Northwestern Uni- Though the characters constantly mous) mansion on Boston's Jamaicaway, versity...
...The horns of the dilemma are these: lives appears more problematic than ever strongest opponents, he points out that the If I sincerely believe that certain objec- before, we may be expected to feel that study of other cultures promises greater tive standards are binding upon me inde- even in our clearest moments of underunderstanding not only of those cultures pendent of my will, it follows that I will standing we do little more than see through but of our own as well...
...The which they choose to suppress, whether as Al Smith or Richard Daley, Curley did enmity between Boston Yankee and Irish they rely on the good in each citizen or on not build an all-encompassing machine...
...policy architects offer no strategy for esThough essentially a local figure, caping the heralded danger...
...he opened them in the end, the scales are clearly weighed of the little things Curley had done for wider, exploiting them for his own pur- in the negative for James Michael Curley, them...
...He has written for the tor Jack Beatty examines them again in Like Beatty, I grew up in a household Atlantic Monthly, Social Policy, and Nuclear the case of James Michael Curley...
...other cultures to be as valuable as our own, The Life and Times of James Michael Thrice indicted, twice jailed, enshrined in less so, or more so...
...These as- simpler in American political culture than 84 extremely thought-provoking short chapters...
...One billion Muslims inhabit the tion restrictions in Congress in 1913, and earth, comprising majorities in forty-five speaking out against growing anti- he Muslims countries...
...The mansion, the array of ser- gies of containment...
...But he is skepti- be more inclined to hold you to these a glass, darkly...
...sociations were also balanced by an out- hyping alarm over Islam...
...Suite 15 and foremost was an unending penchant well-worn and lavishly equipped strate- Wilmington, DE 19803.4129 for graft...
...Beatty faults Curley for adding to the poi- cial forces they choose to liberate and But unlike other big-city mayors such soned waters of Massachusetts politics...
...at least as far as Beatty is concerned...
Vol. 120 • February 1993 • No. 3
