Aaron Million··For a decade or so in the 1860s and early 1870s, William Tweed - known colloquially as "Boss" Tweed - reigned supreme over patronage and power in New York City. His rapid, and to most people - not least of whom would be Tweed himself - shocking demise and subsequent imprisonment makes for an entertaining book. Along the way, the reader is introduced to many other flawed individuals, some famous and some not. Tweed's story is well-told by Kenneth Ackerman, but only once he has attained power. Despite "The Rise" being part of the title, it really seems to be missing from the narrative. Ackerman basically skims over Tweed's early years, so quickly that you hardly notice it. I did not think that he explained Tweed's ascent very well. He became involved in business, in a fire department, and began amassing power. How he did this was not made clear. I was not expecting something akin to Robert Caro's monumental work on Robert Moses, but it seems like a few key moments are missing here.One moment that is not missing is the 1863 NYC draft riots. Ackerman shows Tweed steadying the situation when the local officials proved unable to do so. From there, the book catalogues how Tweed and his "Ring" managed to defraud the city of millions of dollars. How much Tweed, A. Oakey Hall, Peter Sweeny, and Richard Connolly actually did pilfer is and has been disputed, and at this point it probably is impossible to arrive at an accurate figure. There was graft everywhere, voter intimidation, and buying of offices. Ackerman does well in introducing, at length, many other notable characters aside from Tweed: Thomas Nast the cartoonist, George Jones the owner of the New York Times, Samuel Tilden (Governor for ywo years and 1876 Democratic nominee for President), and several others. Even Ulysses S. Grant makes an appearance. Ackerman weaves these folks into the story line, showing how each of them influenced events. This is a strength of the book. It also makes me categorize the book as "history" instead of "biography" because Tweed is almost entirely absent in sections. Ackerman shows that, much like most things in life, pretty much nobody involved here has totally clean hands. Seemingly each person did something that personally benefited himself (there were few women in this story aside from occasional mention of Tweed's wife or daughters - definitely a reflection of the time period), while ostensibly trying to say that they were providing a service to society. Tweed's imprisonment, and then his sudden escape from jail (well, he actually escaped from his own house as he did get special treatment from the wardens) makes for the stuff of fiction. How he got away, and then made it as far as Spain before being brought all the way back to New York, is almost hard to believe. Ackerman unfortunately does not explain why Tweed suddenly left the house he was hiding in over in New Jersey, going to Florida and then Cuba and then Spain. He does chronicle Tweed's deteriorating health during this time period (Tweed was a huge man, 300 pounds) and how the endless trials and the imprisonment, combined with the depletion of his ill-gotten fortune, caused him to age prematurely and die in middle age (later for that time period). Ackerman is sympathetic, I think, to Tweed. No, he does not excuse anything untoward that Tweed did, and shows that even when he was helping poor immigrants it was more out of political calculation than actual concern for peoples' well-being. But he focuses on how the rest of the Ring really got away Scot-free, and how Tweed was at the short end of the stick of several people (such as Tilden) who had their own less-than-noble motives in trying to imprison him and then keep him in prison. Fair point, and I do think that Tweed bore the brunt of the punishment. Several others were almost as guilty as Tweed, if not just as guilty, and they served no prison time. So could one say that Tweed was treated unfairly? Yes, I think so. Yet I could not summon much sympathy for someone who so blatantly stole from the public trough and would have kept right on stealing had he not been caught. Grade: C+
