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Clout City: The Rise and Fall of the Chicago Political Machine
Unearths the religious and cultural roots of a powerful political machine that empowered some everyday Chicagoans but ruled all of the city for decades.
In politics, clout is essential. Too often, it determines whether insider access is granted or denied, favors are given or withheld, and payoffs are made or received. But Chicago clout, as we know it today, is even more potent than that—it's the absolute currency of a social, cultural, and political order that is self-reinforcing and self-dealing. Or at least, it was.
In Clout City, award-winning historian 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-dominated working-class neighborhood of Bridgeport, shaped by De La Salle Institute and home to the legendary Daley family, Pacyga shows how communal ties can be a force for good and also the deepest wellspring of corruption. He maps Chicago’s unique politics to its remarkable history, from the Great Fire of 1871 through its rise and decline as an industrial center to its emergence as a global city in the early twenty-first century. With deep research and firsthand experience from a lifetime in the city, Pacyga argues that Chicago’s politics is understood best as a mixture of cultural and religious influences and more worldly pursuits, exploring how both Jewish and Catholic communalism played central roles in the creation and sustenance of the Chicago machine.
Chicago’s politics today aren’t as defined by its distinctive brand of clout. But they are shaped by clout’s decline and the ghost of the machine. Pacyga’s tour of the city’s multilayered past is an indispensable guide to its present and future.
In politics, clout is essential. Too often, it determines whether insider access is granted or denied, favors are given or withheld, and payoffs are made or received. But Chicago clout, as we know it today, is even more potent than that—it's the absolute currency of a social, cultural, and political order that is self-reinforcing and self-dealing. Or at least, it was.
In Clout City, award-winning historian 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-dominated working-class neighborhood of Bridgeport, shaped by De La Salle Institute and home to the legendary Daley family, Pacyga shows how communal ties can be a force for good and also the deepest wellspring of corruption. He maps Chicago’s unique politics to its remarkable history, from the Great Fire of 1871 through its rise and decline as an industrial center to its emergence as a global city in the early twenty-first century. With deep research and firsthand experience from a lifetime in the city, Pacyga argues that Chicago’s politics is understood best as a mixture of cultural and religious influences and more worldly pursuits, exploring how both Jewish and Catholic communalism played central roles in the creation and sustenance of the Chicago machine.
Chicago’s politics today aren’t as defined by its distinctive brand of clout. But they are shaped by clout’s decline and the ghost of the machine. Pacyga’s tour of the city’s multilayered past is an indispensable guide to its present and future.
- GenresNonfiction
400 pages, Hardcover
Published September 9, 2025
15 people are currently reading
105 people want to read
About the author
Dominic A. Pacyga
15 books26 followersDominic A. Pacyga, PhD, is Professor of History in the Department of Humanities, History, and Social Sciences at Columbia College Chicago.
Dr. Pacyga received his PhD in History from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1981. He has authored, or coauthored, five books concerning Chicago's history, including Chicago: A Biography (2009); Polish Immigrants and Industrial Chicago (1991); Chicago: City of Neighborhoods with Ellen Skerrett (1986); Chicago: A Historical Guide to the Neighborhoods (1979) with Glen Holt; and Chicago's Southeast Side (1998) with Rod Sellers.
Dr. Pacyga has been a faculty member in the Department of HHSS since 1984. He has lectured widely on a variety of topics, including urban development, labor history, immigration, and racial and ethnic relations, and he has appeared in both the local and national media. He has worked with various museums, including the Chicago History Museum, the Museum of Science and Industry, and the Field Museum in Chicago, on a variety of public history projects.
Dr. Pacyga has also consulted with numerous neighborhood organizations, student groups, and ethnic, labor, and fraternal groups to preserve and exhibit their histories. He was guest curator for a major exhibit, "The Chicago Bungalow," at the Chicago Architecture Foundation. He and Charles Shanabruch are coeditors of The Chicago Bungalow (2001), a companion volume to the exhibit.
Dr. Pacyga is a winner of the Oscar Halecki Award from the Polish American Historical Association and a winner of the Catholic Book Award. In 1999, he received the Columbia College Award for Excellence in Teaching. He has been a visiting professor at both the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago. In the spring of 2005, he was a Visiting Scholar in Campion Hall at Oxford University.
Dr. Pacyga received his PhD in History from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1981. He has authored, or coauthored, five books concerning Chicago's history, including Chicago: A Biography (2009); Polish Immigrants and Industrial Chicago (1991); Chicago: City of Neighborhoods with Ellen Skerrett (1986); Chicago: A Historical Guide to the Neighborhoods (1979) with Glen Holt; and Chicago's Southeast Side (1998) with Rod Sellers.
Dr. Pacyga has been a faculty member in the Department of HHSS since 1984. He has lectured widely on a variety of topics, including urban development, labor history, immigration, and racial and ethnic relations, and he has appeared in both the local and national media. He has worked with various museums, including the Chicago History Museum, the Museum of Science and Industry, and the Field Museum in Chicago, on a variety of public history projects.
Dr. Pacyga has also consulted with numerous neighborhood organizations, student groups, and ethnic, labor, and fraternal groups to preserve and exhibit their histories. He was guest curator for a major exhibit, "The Chicago Bungalow," at the Chicago Architecture Foundation. He and Charles Shanabruch are coeditors of The Chicago Bungalow (2001), a companion volume to the exhibit.
Dr. Pacyga is a winner of the Oscar Halecki Award from the Polish American Historical Association and a winner of the Catholic Book Award. In 1999, he received the Columbia College Award for Excellence in Teaching. He has been a visiting professor at both the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago. In the spring of 2005, he was a Visiting Scholar in Campion Hall at Oxford University.
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October 19, 2025
Solid overview of democratic politics in Chicago.
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