The Boston Mayor who Became Truman's Secretary of Labor


Book Description

This biographical study of Irish-American Maurice J. Tobin discusses his development from parochial to international stature during the New Deal and Fair Deal eras. Focusing on Tobin's dedication to improving the lot of the less fortunate, it chronicles his movement from the politics of the ward to the visionary who was dedicated to the common good. Tobin set a precedent for a new generation of Irish Catholics who later occupied even higher public positions.




John William McCormack


Book Description

In the first biography of U.S. House Speaker John W. McCormack, author Garrison Nelson uncovers previously forgotten FBI files, birth and death records, and correspondence long thought lost or buried. For such an influential figure, McCormack tried to dismiss the past, almost erasing his legacy from the public's mind. John William McCormack: A Political Biography sheds light on the behind-the-curtain machinations of American politics and the origins of the modern-day Democratic party, facilitated through McCormack's triumphs. McCormack overcame desperate poverty and family tragedy in the Irish ghetto of South Boston to hold the second-most powerful position in the nation. By reinventing his family history to elude Irish Boston's powerful political gatekeepers, McCormack embarked on a 1928 - 1971 House career and from 1939-71, the longest house leadership career. Working with every president from Coolidge to Nixon, McCormack's social welfare agenda, which included Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, immigration reform, and civil rights legislation helped commit the nation to the welfare of its most vulnerable citizens. By helping create the Austin-Boston Connection, McCormack reshaped the Democratic Party from a regional southern white Protestant party to one that embraced urban religiously and racially diverse ethnics. A man free of prejudice, John McCormack was the Boston Brahmin's favorite Irishman, the South's favorite northerner, and known in Boston as "Rabbi John," the Jews' favorite Catholic.




A Synopsis of the Secretary of Labor


Book Description

The Secretary of Labor is the head of the Department of Labor who is responsible for enforcing the laws involving unions, the workplace and all other issues involving business and worker relationships.







Selling the Korean War


Book Description

How presidents spark and sustain support for wars remains an enduring and significant problem. Korea was the first limited war the U.S. experienced in the contemporary period - the first recent war fought for something less than total victory. In Selling the Korean War , Steven Casey explores how President Truman and then Eisenhower tried to sell it to the American public. Based on a massive array of primary sources, Casey subtly explores the government's selling activities from all angles. He looks at the halting and sometimes chaotic efforts of Harry Truman and Dean Acheson, Dwight Eisenhower and John Foster Dulles. He examines the relationships that they and their subordinates developed with a host of other institutions, from Congress and the press to Hollywood and labor. And he assesses the complex and fraught interactions between the military and war correspondents in the battlefield theater itself. From high politics to bitter media spats, Casey guides the reader through the domestic debates of this messy, costly war. He highlights the actions and calculations of colorful figures, including Senators Robert Taft and JHoseph McCarthy, and General Douglas MacArthur. He details how the culture and work routines of Congress and the media influenced political tactics and daily news stories. And he explores how different phases of the war threw up different problems - from the initial disasters in the summer of 1950 to the giddy prospects of victory in October 1950, from the massive defeats in the wake of China's massive intervention to the lengthy period of stalemate fighting in 1952 and 1953.




Democratic Repairman


Book Description

As governor of Rhode Island, J. Howard McGrath oversaw the passage of social legislation aimed at improving the lives of his constituents during the dark days of World War II. As a Rhode Island senator he served as the Democratic National Committee Chairman during the contentious 1948 presidential election, when few believed Harry Truman could defeat New York governor Thomas R. Dewey. Following Truman's victory, McGrath could easily have written his own ticket to further political success--but his career was cut short in 1952 when he was forced to resign as Attorney General amid a cloud of scandal. This biography traces the rise and fall of a politician who achieved notable success yet ultimately fell victim to his appetite for power, fame and fortune.







Irish Nationalists in Boston


Book Description

During the first quarter of the twentieth century, the intersection of support for Irish freedom and the principles of Catholic social justice transformed Irish ethnicity in Boston. Prior to World War I, Boston’s middle-class Irish nationalist leaders sought a rapprochement with local Yankees. However, the combined impact of the Easter 1916 Rising and the postwar campaign to free Ireland from British rule drove a wedge between leaders of the city’s two main groups. Irish-American nationalists, emboldened by the visits of Irish leader Eamon de Valera, rejected both Yankees’ support of a postwar Anglo-American alliance and the latter groups’ portrayal of Irish nationalism as a form of Bolshevism. Instead, ably assisted by Catholic Church leaders such as Cardinal William O’Connell, Boston’s Irish nationalists portrayed an independent Ireland as the greatest bulwark against the spread of socialism. As the movement’s popularity spread locally, it attracted the support not only of Irish immigrants, but also that of native-born Americans of Irish descent, including businessman, left-leaning progressives, and veterans of the women’s suffrage movement. For a brief period after World War I, Irish-American nationalism in Boston became a vehicle for the promotion of wider democratic reform. Though the movement was unable to survive the disagreements surrounding the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, it had been a source of ethnic unity that enabled Boston’s Irish community to negotiate the challenges of the postwar years including the anti-socialist Red Scare and the divisions caused by the Boston Police Strike in the fall of 1919. Furthermore, Boston’s Irish nationalists drew heavily on Catholic Church teachings such that Irish ethnicity came to be more clearly identified with the advocacy of both cultural pluralism and the rights of immigrant and working families in Boston and America.







Massachusetts Encyclopedia


Book Description

MASSACHUSETTS ENCYCLOPEDIA is the definitive reference work on Massachusetts ever published. The noted Massachusetts historian Dr. Jack Tager, Professor Emeritus from University of Massachusetts, Amherst, has written articles on Introduction to Massachusetts History, Early History of Massachusetts, and Massachusetts History. These articles cover the history of Massachusetts, from the early explorers to twenty-first century events. Other major sections in this reference work are Massachusetts Symbols and Designations, Geography and Topography of Massachusetts, Profiles of Massachusetts Governors, Chronology of Massachusetts Historic Events, Dictionary of Massachusetts Places, Massachusetts Constitution, Bibliography of Massachusetts Books, Pictorial Scenes of Massachusetts, State Executive Offices, State Agencies, Departments and Offices, Massachusetts Senators, Massachusetts Assembly Members, U.S. Senators and U.S. Congress members from Massachusetts, Directory of Massachusetts Historic Places and Index. All sections contain the latest up to date information on the Bay State.MASSACHUSETTS ENCYCLOPEDIA contains stunning photographs and portraits to compliment the expertly written text. Population charts are arranged alphabetically by city or town name, and by county. This allows students easy access to find population figures for their area of interest. Other population charts list all places in Massachusetts by largest populated places to least populated places by city or county. Directories contain the information on elected state and federal officials along with their contact information including mail and email addresses, phone and fax numbers. Easy to use reference maps are included to find your elected state or federal officials. The Directory of State Services lists the head officials and full contact information on state agencies and departments, some of which were just newly created by the legislature. The Directory of Massachusetts Historic Places contains all the latest up to date information on every Massachusetts historic place. The Bibliography includes that latest books published on Massachusetts. A detailed Index makes the work thoroughly referential. MASSACHUSETTS ENCYCLCOPEDIA offers librarians, teachers and students a single source reference work that provides the answers to the most frequently asked questions about Massachusetts and its history.