History of the United States II / Unit 4 USH2 0468 short lesson, about 20 seconds
The Political Machine
Captions available
The idea
Political machines such as New York's Tammany Hall traded favours for votes, delivering services to immigrant neighbourhoods in return for loyalty at the polls.
In practice
A boss funding a new sidewalk quickly and taking a kickback, known as graft.
Where people slip
Machines also ran Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, St. Louis and Kansas City. Tammany dominated New York politics from the eighteen fifties to the nineteen thirties.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
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