num_pages: 620
description: "A truly brilliant biography."--John Kenneth Galbraith, Chicago TribuneTwice jailed while serving in office yet a champion of the people, builder of schools yet a shameless grafter, James Michael Curley was the stuff of legend long before his life became fiction in Edwin O'Connor's classic novel The Last Hurrah . As mayor of Boston, as a United States congressman, as governor of Massachusetts, Curley rose from the slums of South Boston in a career extending from the Progressive Era of Teddy Roosevelt to the ascendancy of the Kennedy sons. While Curley lived, he represented both the triumph of Irish Americans and the birth of divisive politics of ethnic and racial polarization; when he died, over one million mourners turned out to pay their respects in the largest wake Boston had ever seen.Nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography, Beatty's spellbinding story of "the Kingfish of Massachusetts" is also an epic of his city, its immigrant people, and its turbulent times. It is simply biography at its best."Beatty's book is a delight--rich, witty, flowing, and full of insight about the nature of political corruption."--Constance Casey, Los Angeles Times"A panoramic, exquisitely incisive biography that illuminates the triumphs, debacles, and personal sorrows of the irrepressible man known as Boston's 'Mayor of the Poor.'"--Robert Wilson, USA Today
language: English
title: The Rascal King: The Life And Times Of James Michael Curley
titlecomplete: The Rascal King: The Life And Times Of James Michael Curley (1874-1958)
characters: James Michael Curley
genres: History, American History, Biography, 20th Century, Local History, Nonfiction, Politics
ratings_count: 165
awards: awardedAt: 725875200000
name: Laurence L. & Thomas Winship/PEN New England Award, awardedAt: 725875200000
name: American Book Award, awardedAt: 694252800000
name: National Book Critics Circle Award
category: Biography/Autobiography
publisher: Da Capo Press