The author of the new book on Tammany Hall, Terry Golway, will be the speaker at the November 12 meeting of the Irish Cultural Society.  The meeting convenes at 7:30 p.m. in the Garden City Library, 60 Seventh Street, across the street from the Garden City Hotel.  The meeting is free and open to the public.

Tammany Hall is an essential part of the vocabulary of New York City politics.  For many, Tammany Hall and political corruption are synonymous.  For others, Tammany Hall was a lifesaver tossed into the turbulent and unforgiving sea of 19^th and early 20^th century New York City.  These complexities are the subject of Professor Terry Golway’s talk.

Terry Golway’s book Machine Made:  Tammany Hall and the Creation of Modern American Politics has been well received in book reviews.  Professor Golway’s talk will acknowledge the misgovernment of Tammany Hall with its creation of “Boss” Tweed as the very face of political corruption.  But he will also argue that Tammany Hall was an influence on the progressive legislation which helped working people, the Irish among them, to form a vibrant middle class in the United States.

Professor Terry Golway is the Director of the Kean University Center for History, Politics and Policy, a columnist for the Irish Echo, and the author of Irish Rebel a biography of John Devoy and subject of his visit to the Garden City Library on April 2001; The Irish in America; Let Every Nation Know: JFK in His Own Words; and So Others Might Live, a history of the FDNY.  Professor Golway’s passion for history informs his speaking style.  He is a welcome returnee to the Garden City Library.