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Grafters and Goo Goos: Corruption and Reform in Chicago, by James L. Merriner
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Chicago’s reputation for corruption is the basis of local and national folklore and humor. Grafters and Goo Goos: Corruption and Reform in Chicago, 1833–2003 unfolds the city’s notorious history of corruption and the countervailing reform struggles that largely failed to clean it up. More than a regional history of crime in politics, this wide-ranging account of governmental malfeasances traces ongoing public corruption and reform to its nineteenth-century democratic roots. Former Chicago journalist James L. Merriner reveals the battles between corrupt politicos and ardent reformers to be expressions of conflicting class, ethnic, and religious values.
From Chicago’s earliest years in the 1830s, the city welcomed dollar-chasing businessmen and politicians, swiftly followed by reformers who strived to clean up the attendant corruption. Reformers in Chicago were called “goo goos,” a derisive epithet short for “good-government types.” Grafters and Goo Goos contends a certain synergy defined the relationship between corruption and reform. Politicians and reformers often behaved similarly, their separate ambitions merging into a conjoined politics of interdependency wherein the line between heroes and villains grew increasingly faint. The real story, asserts Merriner, has less to do with right against wrong than it does with the ways the cultural backgrounds of politicians and reformers steered their own agendas, animating and defining each other by their opposition.
Drawing on original and archival research, Merriner identifies constants in the struggle between corruption and reform amid a welter of changing social circumstances and customs—decades of alternating war and peace, hardships and prosperity. Three areas of reform and resistance are identified: structural reform of the political system to promote honesty and efficiency, social reform to provide justice to the lower classes, and moral reform to combat vice. “In the matter of corruption and reform, the constants might be stronger than the variables,” writes Merriner in the Preface. “The players, rules, and scorekeepers change, but not the essential game.”
Complemented by eighteen illustrations, Grafters and Goo Goos is rife with shocking and amusing anecdotes and peppered with the personalities of famous muckrakers, bootleggers, mayors, and mobsters. While other studies have profiled infamous Chicago corruption cases and figures such as Al Capone and Richard J. Daley, this is the first to provide an overview appropriate for historians and general readers alike. In examining Chicago’s notorious saga of corruption and reform against a backdrop of social history, Merriner calls attention to our constant problems of both civic and national corruption and contributes to larger discussions about the American experiment of democratic self-government.
- Sales Rank: #2118947 in Books
- Brand: Brand: Southern Illinois University Press
- Published on: 2004-03-11
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.00" h x 1.00" w x 6.00" l, 1.63 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 328 pages
- Used Book in Good Condition
From Booklist
If there is a single theme in this meticulously researched book, it is that "politicians tended to abuse their power while reformers tended to abuse their own, all while pursuing their own conceptions of self-interest as well as of the common good." Merriner examines their roles against a backdrop of social history in what he labels "a blend of anecdotes and analysis, a one-volume overview of a very big story." He defines corruption as the use of improper political influence for private gain and reform as the effort to prevent such activity. Merriner reminds readers that no alderman, committeeman, or candidate since 1964 has been shot, pistol-whipped, kidnapped, dumped in the sanitary canal, or encased in concrete: "This is progress." He argues that rather than attempt to reduce the amount of corruption with stricter laws, the remedy might lie in addressing the other side of the equation: reduce the amount of government. This book is a bit more about corruption than reform, but then so is Chicago. That's what makes the book so absorbing. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
“Grafters and Goo Goos captures the ebb and flow of the patented form of chicanery and outlandishness that has tarred the city of Chicago as arguably the most corrupt place on earth. This richly woven tapestry of anecdotal material is supported by colorful quotes, insightful observations, and a world-weary sense that Chicago is whatever it is, and will always be. Merriner is a wonderful writer whose seamless prose moves the story along.”—Richard Lindberg, Chicago historian and author of To Serve and Collect: Chicago Politics and Police Corruption from the Lager Beer Riot to the Summerdale Scandal, 1855–1960
“James L. Merriner, biographer of Dan Rostenkowski and veteran observer of the Chicago political scene, is superbly qualified to write this sweeping history of corruption and reform in the Windy City. Bits and pieces of this fascinating story are already well known, but Merriner’s achievement is to provide a detailed chronological narrative in one well-written volume.”—Roger Biles, author of Richard J. Daley: Politics, Race, and the Governing of Chicago
About the Author
James L. Merriner covered Chicago and national politics for more than two decades as political editor of the Chicago Sun-Times and the Atlanta Constitution. He is the author of Mr. Chairman: Power in Dan Rostenkowski’s America and The City Club of Chicago: A Centennial History, 1903–2003 and the coauthor of Against Long Odds: Citizens Who Challenge Congressional Incumbents. He was a James Thurber Writer-in-Residence at Ohio State University and teaches at Marietta College.
Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Five Stars
By carl adrianopoli
great Chicago fare.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
All Politics is Local: How the Game Was and Is Played
By Borowy26
This is a fairly good survey of the political landscape in the City of Chicago by a veteran journalist. It tries to address the perennial question, to paraphrase Alderman Mathias "Paddy" Bauler, of "Why ain't Chicago ready for reform?"
The book is concerned with political movements and the efforts of progressives and reformers to do battle with boodlers and spoilsmen. In the political language of Chicago, good government types are derided as "goo goos" for their infantile naivete. As Merriner points out, several successful politicins had to make it clear to the precinct workers that they were not reformers in order to secure votes from party regulars.
Given the number of candidates and elections to be treated, there are more than a few errors as to dates. For example, Big Bill Thompson was not elected alderman in 1902. He was elected to the Cook County Board of Commissioners that year. Similarly, Thompson was the sponsor of a reception for expelled US Senator Billy Lorimer, but not while serving as mayor. The welcome home rally occurred earlier. State's Attorney John Wayman did not resign his office in 1912. He chose to run for governor rather than to seek reelection as prosecutor and he lost the Republican nomination to the incumbent governor, Charles S. Deneen in 1912. Wayman left office upon the expiration of his term.
To quote Tip O'Neill, "All politics is local." Merriner does a respectably good job of trying to explain the political culture that is Chicago. The reform elements and progressives fought the good fight, but were outflanked by the grafters at almost every turn. The author is to be complimented for analyzing reams of archival materials, including meeting minutes, reports and correspondence from numerous civic organizations.
This book is an entertaining primer on practical politics in the City of Big Shoulders. It is more fun than stuffing a ballot box and less dangerous than serving as an election judge in one of the river wards.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Reality history primer
By ed hammer
The story of US government and politics is full of good guys, bad guys and compromises. Merriner's book describes those connections as they relate to Chicago, Illinois. His book is a great primer for understanding the Illinois culture of corruption but it is also a story that is comparable to the history of all 50 states. "Grafters and Goo Goos" makes a great bookshelf companion to "One Hundred Percent Guilty, How and Insider Links the Death of Six Children to the Politics of Illinois Convicted Governor George Ryan" also available on amazon.
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