Now on the Patreon: Franklin Roosevelt Takes on Jimmy Walker In the sweltering summer of 1932, Franklin Delano Roosevelt found himself ensnared in a political web spun by the most notorious machine in New York politics—Tammany Hall. As governor of New York, Roosevelt was well aware of the rampant corruption within the city’s government, but his position as the Democratic nominee for president made any decisive action perilous. Removing New York City’s charismatic, scandal-plagued mayor, Jimmy Walker, would mean war with the political bosses whose support he needed. Yet ignoring Walker’s misdeeds would undermine Roosevelt’s image as a reformer and threaten his appeal to progressives across the nation.

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