{"product_id":"9780226449494","title":"First Son: The Biography of Richard M. Daley","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"Mayor Richard M. Daley dropped the bomb at a routine news conference at City Hall on Tuesday. With no prelude or fanfare, Mr. Daley announced that he would not seek re-election when his term expires next year. 'Simply put, it's time,' he said.\" \u003ci\u003eNew York Times, September 7, 2010\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWith those four words, an era ended. After twenty-two years, the longest-serving and most powerful mayor in the history of Chicago—and, arguably, America—stepped down, leaving behind a city that was utterly transformed, and a complicated legacy we are only beginning to evaluate.\u003c\/p\u003e In \u003ci\u003eFirst Son\u003c\/i\u003e, Keith Koeneman chronicles the sometimes Shakespearean, sometimes Machiavellian life of an American political legend. Making deft use of unprecedented access to key players in the Daley administration, as well as Chicago's business and cultural leaders, Koeneman draws on more than one hundred interviews to tell an up-close, insider story of political triumph and personal evolution. \u003cp\u003eWith Koeneman as our guide, we follow young Daley from his beginnings as an average Bridgeport kid thought to lack his father's talent and charisma to his unlikely transformation into an iron-fisted leader. Daley not only escaped the giant shadow of his father but also transformed Chicago from a gritty, post-industrial Midwestern capital into a beautiful, sophisticated global city widely recognized as a model for innovative metropolises throughout the world.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBut in spite of his many accomplishments, Richard M. Daley's record is far from flawless. \u003ci\u003eFirst Son\u003c\/i\u003e sets the dramatic improvement of certain parts of the city against the persistent realities of crime, financial stress , failing public housing, and dysfunctional schools. And it reveals that while in many ways Daley broke with the machine politics of his father, he continued to reward loyalty with favors, use the resources of city government to overwhelm opponents, and tolerate political corruption.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA nuanced portrait of a complex man, \u003ci\u003eFirst Son\u003c\/i\u003e shows Daley to be sensitive yet tough, impatient yet persistent, a street-smart fighter and detail-driven policy expert who not only ran Chicago, but \u003ci\u003ewas\u003c\/i\u003e Chicago.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"University of Chicago Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47120224583920,"sku":"9780226449494","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780226449494_p0.jpg?v=1769916479","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780226449494","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}