In I Never Did Like Politics: How Fiorello La Guardia Became America's Mayor, and Why He Still Matters,Terry Golway (Frank and Al) does a brilliant job of constructing the life of Fiorello La Guardia, an everyman son of Italian immigrants who served New York City as its mayor from 1934 to 1946. La Guardia also represented the great city in the House of Representatives from 1923 to 1933--at the birth of the Great Depression, the rise of fascism, and amid overwhelming political rhetoric on both sides of the aisle.
Fiorello was a true public servant. He spoke several languages and was incredibly sympathetic to the immigrant experience, doing whatever he could for his constituents to make their lives safer and fuller. Living in East Harlem, he knew what it was like to be around the dusty and dangerous tenement buildings, the filth that a city unchecked could reach. He made it his duty to use New Deal money to better the lives of those he served, and used his platform to call out right and wrong as he saw it: "So harsh were his condemnations of Adolf Hitler before World War II that the State Department apologized to the Nazi government." In a world where so many are afraid to pick a side for what is right, it is an immense treat to read about a political maverick who, during an unprecedented time, wasn't right all the time--but strived all the same. --Dominic Charles Howarth, book manager, Book + Bottle