Plunkitt of Tammany Hall: A Series of Very Plain Talks on Very Practical Politics, Delivered by Ex-Senator George Washington Plunkitt, the Tammany Philosopher, from His Rostrum—the New York County Court House Bootblack Stand; Recorded by William L. Riordon

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall is the most entertaining political document in American literature, and the most dangerous. George Washington Plunkitt rose from bootblack to millionaire, from poverty to power, and he did it all through what he called "honest graft", profiting from insider knowledge of government projects rather than stealing from the public treasury. In this series of plainspoken talks recorded at his bootblack stand in the New York County Courthouse, Plunkitt dissects the machinery of political power with disarming clarity. He explains how knowing where the city plans to build a school lets you buy the surrounding land at a discount. He describes how reformists are naïve idealists who don't understand how the world actually works. The charm here is the voice, Plunkitt isn't hiding anything, isn't apologizing, isn't even slightly embarrassed. He's simply explaining how the game is played, and making it sound almost reasonable. This is political philosophy as practiced by a man who read Machiavelli and decided he could do better. The book functions as both a historical artifact and a uncomfortable mirror held up to every era of American politics, including our own.