author
George Washington Plunkitt
1842–1924
A blunt, colorful voice from New York’s Gilded Age, this Tammany Hall boss became famous for explaining the difference between corruption and what he called "honest graft." His streetwise talks still offer a vivid window into machine politics, ambition, and city life at the turn of the twentieth century.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in New York City on November 17, 1842, George Washington Plunkitt rose from a poor Irish immigrant background and had only a few years of formal schooling. He built his career in the rough-and-tumble world of city politics and became a longtime leader in Tammany Hall, the Democratic machine that shaped much of New York public life in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Plunkitt served in both houses of the New York State Legislature and became known less for polished speeches than for his practical, plainspoken style. He is remembered above all through Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, a collection of talks in which he defended patronage politics and coined his famous idea of "honest graft"—using insider knowledge for personal gain while insisting it was different from outright theft.
He died on November 19, 1924. Today, he remains a memorable figure not because he cleaned up politics, but because he described its workings so openly and vividly that readers can still hear the voice of old New York in his words.