THE book I have enjoyed most this year is Boss Tweed by Kenneth D. Ackerman (Carroll & Graf Publishers), which profiles the rise and fall of the most corrupt politician in New York history. Despite ...

By 1863, Tweed was the Tammany boss. As Tammany "sachem" and the city's Public Works commissioner, Tweed "had a finger in every pie," writes Ackerman, including the Brooklyn Bridge, which he claimed ...