Introduction: The Sacred and the Profane in Chicago's Politics - 1. The Great Fire, an Assassination, and the Seeds of Change, The Day Everything Changed ; "Our Carter" - 2. Bridgeport and De La Salle Institute : The Birth of the Machine ; Bridgeport ; The River and the Bridgeport Stench ; Rum, Riot, and Romanism ; The Working-Class Response ; The Bridgeport Way ; De La Salle Institute : The Cradle of Clout ; Communal Catholicism and Clout ; Patron Saints and Patronage - 3. The Communal Web ; The Priest, the Minister, and the Rabbi ; The Saloon ; The Ward Boss ; The Gangster - 4. The Machine's Growing Pains ; Roger Sullivan and John Hopkins ; Demographic and Technological Change ; Young Carter ; Patronage and the Traction Issue - 5. A Republican Protestant Proto-Machine ; William Hale Thompson ; The Blond Boss ; Mayor Thompson ; A Democratic Reformer ; The Return of Big Bill ; Thompson's Last Hurrah! 1927-1931 - 6. Bohemian Rhapsody : A New Ethnic Alignment ; Bohemia in Chicago ; Anton Cermak : The Early Years ; The United Societies for Local Self-Government ; The Growth of a Communal Political Machine ; Cermak Rising ; Mayor Cermak - 7. Bridgeport's Victory ; Frank J. Corr : A De La Salle Graduate ; Mayor Edward Kelly : A South Side Irish Catholic Mayor ; Kelly, the Policy Wheel, and the Growth of the Democratic Machine ; Dawson, Clout, Community, and the Emerging Black Democratic Majority ; Labor, Ethnic, Class Conflict and the Kelly-Nash Machine ; Wartime Mayor - 8. Clout and Communalism Triumphant ; Kennelly : A Bridgeport Reformer ; A True Bridgeport Mayor ; The Church Triumphant ; A Battle Between the Sacred and Profane - 9. Fragmentation : Clout and Communalism in Decline ; The Racial Divide : The Sacred and Profane in Conflict ; Racial Clashes ; The Chicago Freedom Movement ; Coming Apart : The Democratic Convention ; Dark Days - 10. Changing Times ; Let the Chaos Begin! ; The Democratic Civil War Begins : Bilandic, Byrne, Daley, and Washington ; The Church Dispirited - 11. Not Your Father's Machine ; Restoration? ; A New Machine? ; A Neoliberal Machine ; The Daley Family ; The End of the Daley Era - 12. After the Daleys ; Emanuel Takes Control ; The Sacred vs. the Profane in Englewood ; A Second Emanuel Administration ; The Last Gasp of the Old Machine : Burke and Madigan ; A Progressive Interlude : The Lightfoot and Johnson Administrations -- Conclusion: The End of the Communal Machine

"In politics, clout is the Chicago Way: insider access granted or denied, favors given or withheld, payoffs made or received. But Chicago clout is more than that. It's the absolute currency of a social, cultural, and political order that is self-reinforcing, self-dealing, and ultimately self-sealing in its contempt for anything outside of it. Or at least, it was. Here, Dominic A. Pacyga reveals how cultural, ethnic, and religious forces created this distinctive system-and ultimately led to its collapse. Tracing clout's origins in the Irish Catholic neighborhood of Bridgeport, Pacyga shows how communal ties can be a force for good and also the deepest wellspring of corruption"-- Provided by publisher