Fiorello LA Guardia: Ethnicity and Reform (American Biographical History Series)

EXCERPT: The life of Fiorello H. La Guardia is fascinating, both because of his unique and colorful personal qualities as well as his position as a truly transitional figure who became a unifying bridge between generations of reformers and whole, widely disparate ethnic communities.

La Guardia the celebrity is best remembered by New Yorkers for his unusual antics--reading the comics over the radio, running into burning buildings, conducting the orchestra at park concerts. La Guardia the mayor is remembered as a tough taskmaster who provided an efficient, honest government that made numerous improvements to a city collapsing under the weight of Tammany corruption and the depression. This biographical essay analyzes La Guardia's tenure as mayor of New York, his relationships with such figures of his day as Jimmy Walker, Robert Moses, and Franklin Roosevelt, and his ability to forge a new federal-city partnership that still endures.