George Reedy was destined to write this

book; his fifth since his classic The Twilight

of the Presidency. Reedy s impoverished

great-grandfather, Michael Reedy, emigrated

from Ireland to America in 1850, at the nadir

of the Potato Famine, and his mother was

a Mulvaney. "The Irish character found its

expression here in the United States in politics

because there was no other vehicle that of

fered our Potato Famine immigrants passage

out of the slums," he writes.

Reedy, formerly Lyndon Johnson s press

secretary and now the Nieman Professor of

Journalism at Marquette University, traces

the growth of Irish-American political power

through four stages: the emergence of an

Irish immigrant proletariat as the muscle

of the nascent Industrial Revolution; the

domination of big-city police and fire depart-

ments; the political rise to control or- city

halls; and ascendancy to national leadership

as epitomized by the election of John Fitz-

gerald Kennedy.

With verve and characteristic humor,

Reedy shows how the Irish clan system was

perfectly adapted to American politics, free

of ideology and focused on forging alliances

to win power and votes. The popularity of

Irish pols was often achieved with a gift

turkey on Thanksgiving or a load of coal on

Christmas. But Reedy also illuminates the

potent, serious aspect of the story: the Irish

constructed the presidential nomination of

AI Smith, and their machines forged links

with the Jewish minority, from which the

New Deal coalition that would prevail for

decades emerged, headed by the liberal elite

of Roosevelt, Harriman and the Lehmans.

From the Ward to the White House is a

testament to Reedy s theme that the enduring

Irish-American legacy to today s political

party system is its highly personal flavor and

the principle that a government s first job is

to help the people.