In this sparkling and definitive new biography we are reminded of a time when a this, short man with a careening falsetto and a huge Stetson patrolled the streets of New York. This was a man who became a legend, a man who cooled riots, fed the hungry, hectored the gamblers, read comic strips over the radio to children, and single-handedly transformed a huge, drifting metropolis into a city with a heart and an imagination. Wrestling with the deadlocking forces of his tome, Fiorello La Guardia infused his city with integrity, amused it with his humor, and served it with his heart and soul.

When la Guardia took office as mayor of New York City in 1934 hundreds of thousands of people were unemployed and many feared that revolution was imminent. Sorely needed improvements were being ignored and the slums were festering; communities of he bitter and homeless lived in cardboard shanties; and relief was limited to those with political connections. Just a year before, New York's stylish, good-time mayor, Jimmy Walker, had been forced from office after a series of revelations disclosed a municipal government that was even more rotten than it was ineffective.

As a congressman, La Guardia had made spirited war on the racists, the self-righteous supporters of prohibition, and the fawning worshippers of business. But it was as mayor of New York that he stamped the history of his times and the nation that he so loved. La Guardia shaped a government that sought not only to meet the immediate crisis, but to plan a city with a future. Propelled by a furious energy, he battled corruption and fought fires. he built bridges, tunnels, schools, parks, airports, and public housing. And, throughout his tenure, he attracted to the municipal service some of the best men and women of his time.

La Guardia worked closely with Franklin Roosevelt to craft a federal urban policy that brought billions to his city and to others around the country. His example for the modern mayoralty set the standard for city governments. A man whose enthusiasms were never on a small scale, La Guardia chaired the Joint American-Canadian Permanent Defense Board, directed the Office of Civilian Defense, lobbied for a generalship, pursued the presidency, and presided over the National Conference of Mayors—all while serving as mayor of New York.

Based on private papers only recently made available, on newly released FBI documents, and on extensive research among the official papers and documents of the City of New York, this compelling biography chronicles the making of the modern metropolis through the life of one of its most complex, endlessly interesting, fiercely ambitious, and intemperate immigrant sons.