Description
Book SynopsisTwo political titans forge a modern city and a vibrant public sector in this history of strong leadership at a time of national crisis.
Trade Review"This illuminating study offers a fresh vantage from which to comprehend key features of the New Deal and the history of New York. Moving between a vibrant portrayal of persons and incisive accounts of processes, City of Ambition is written with verve and imagination." -- Ira Katznelson, author of Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time
"An excellent account—well written and thoroughly researched—of how FDR and La Guardia, in an era of depression and war, channeled federal resources into crisis-ridden municipalities. Williams’s recounting of their achievement is a salutary reminder of what was once possible, and could be again." -- Mike Wallace, coauthor of Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898
"An extraordinary book. In telling the story of how Roosevelt and La Guardia—men as fascinating as they were powerful—forged a mighty political collaboration, it brilliantly reinterprets the New Deal from the vantage point of the nation’s greatest city. It also marks the remarkable debut of a gifted young historian." -- Sean Wilentz, author of The Rise of American Democracy
