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Bottom of the pile
10
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
17/100Critics
4/100Scholars
Author:
Rahm Emanuel
Publisher:
Knopf Publishing Group
Date:
February 25, 2020
Rahm Emanuel, former two-term mayor of Chicago and White House Chief of Staff for President Barack Obama, offers a firsthand account of how cities, rather than the federal government, stand at the center of innovation and effective governance.
What The Reviewers Say
... some readers will see the book as an effort to recover space for a style of business-friendly liberalism increasingly beleaguered on the national scene.
Emanuel perhaps invents a new genre for mayoral tomes. He combines the look backwards at what happened and what might have been with a forward-looking manifesto that extends far beyond Chicago, Cook County or Illinois. Emanuel brags about what he considers his successes and downplays (or ignores) his shortcomings. More importantly, he makes an argument about the future of politics in America and the rest of the 'developed' world, which may prove to be true: Mayors matter more than presidents or prime ministers.
... most of all, Emanuel touts his own achievements: renovating O’Hare Airport, altering the school system, and luring corporate headquarters downtown, among others. It’s a spun record, denuded of the controversy that marked much of his tenure, and predictably self-serving. Nevertheless, the book brims with the author’s passion for the city’s top job. At its best, Emanuel’s chronicle offers a revelatory view into how mayors run cities, and provokes readers to ponder whether cities really might save the world..
Unfortunately, cities are particularly vulnerable to pandemic, and mayors alone cannot stop a plague. The energetic pragmatism that Mr. Emanuel champions does, however, provide a model for the state and national leaders who must grapple with this global crisis.
