George Washington Plunkitt

Born in 1842, he became one of the best-known figures in New York City politics through his long association with Tammany Hall. He represented the Fifteenth Assembly District on Manhattan’s West Side and built a reputation as a master of neighborhood influence, patronage, and old-style party organization.

He is remembered most widely for Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, a collection of conversations that captured his direct, often comic explanations of how machine politics really worked. The book helped preserve his famous defense of “honest graft,” a phrase that still comes up in discussions of corruption, reform, and political power.

Plunkitt died in 1924, but his voice has lasted far beyond his era because it offers such a vivid look at how big-city politics operated behind the scenes. For listeners interested in American history, urban life, or political culture, he remains a colorful and revealing guide to the world of Gilded Age and Progressive Era New York.