"Boss" outlines Daley's Irish working-class origins and his step-by-step rise through the rough-and-tumble hierarchy of the Chicago Democratic party machine, until he was first elected mayor in 1955 and went on to become influential in national politics. The book describes patronage and political strong-arm tactics in vivid detail and contains stinging depictions of precinct captains, aldermen, bureaucrats, judges, the Chicago Police Department, and of Daley himself. The final chapters cover the turbulent 1960s, with social unrest surrounding the Civil Rights Movement, violent confrontations between protesters and authorities, and the notorious, rowdy Chicago Democratic convention in 1968. The book concludes in 1970 with a determined, unrepentant Mayor Daley still in office.