Rogues and Redeemers: When Politics Was King in Irish Boston Hardcover - 2012

Media reviews

 “…a lively and highly readable study of the political figures who shaped and then reshaped the city in the 20th century.”--The Boston Globe

 "In Rogues and Redeemers, Gerard O'Neill brings his native knowledge and wit to bear on a regional political tradition as wily -- and felonious -- as any in U.S. history. From Honey Fitz to Curley to Ray Flynn -- they're all here, in a tight, entertaining narrative filled with triumph and tragedy."-- T.J. English, author of The Savage City and Paddy Whacked
 
“Gerry O’Neill’s entertaining and instructive book about the role of the Irish in Boston politics combines important insights about the role of ethnicity in American society, and a refreshingly positive discussion of the role that politics plays in our democracy. It’s an excellent antidote to those who would either sanitize or demonize both subjects.”—Barney Frank
 
"Gerard O'Neill brings Boston magnificently to life as the true star of its own saga - a tragic hero to be sure, full of hubris and waste. But also, as the title suggest, rife with redemption. O'Neill has written this generation's Last Hurrah."--James Carroll, Author of Jerusalem, Jerusalem
 
 
"The great Gerry O'Neill, Irish America's premier investigative reporter, gives a wry but unvarnished account of the crooks and misfits - and, yes, the redeemers - of his clan. This is a soaring tale, across a century, of how the Irish employed politics to escape the urban ghettoes, how their excess helped lead to Boston's plunge into hatred and decay, until a few rugged sons discarded the crutches of corruption and resentment, and joined others in building the world class city we know today." –John A. Farrell author of Tip O’Neill and the Democratic Century
 
“Rogues and Redeemers is a joy to read. The author's colorful prose keeps the reader riveted as the history of Boston politics unfolds from the reign of the rascal king, James Michael Curley, to Ed Logue's grand design for urban renewal and Judge Garrity's flawed plan to integrate the city's school. Certain to become a classic, it is one of the best histories of Boston ever written.”--Jay P. Dolan, Author of The Irish Americans: A History