{ "item_title" : "Satan's Invisible World Displayed", "item_author" : [" W. T. Stead "], "item_description" : "How does a democracy become an instrument of organised oppression? In late-nineteenth-century New York City, the answer lies not in a single scandal but in a municipal system where machine politics reaches into police precincts, courts, elections and public administration. Moving through the institutions and streets of the metropolis, this investigation exposes the conflict between civic liberty and power exercised behind closed doors. Drawing heavily on testimony from the Lexow Committee's investigations, the journalist-investigator traces the connections between Tammany Hall, police corruption and criminal enterprise. Purchased appointments and protection payments reveal how public authority could be converted into private advantage, while immigrants, workers, small traders and the poor bore the consequences. Urban reportage meets historical narrative and polemic, turning official evidence into a searching account of patronage, extortion, brutality and election fraud without reducing municipal corruption to a catalogue of offences. Beyond exposure lies a more difficult political question: can reform defeat a deeply rooted machine without creating new dangers of its own? The analysis weighs publicity against secrecy and democratic accountability against concentrated executive power, examining both the promise and the risks of municipal reform. Its focus remains firmly on the structures that allow corruption to endure-and on the uneasy distance between democratic ideals and government as practised. This book was out of print for decades and is now republished by Alpha Editions. It has been restored for today's and future generations. This edition is not just a reprint - it's a collector's item and a cultural treasure.", "item_img_path" : "https://covers4.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/9/37/841/933/937841933X_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "25.99", "online_price" : "25.99", "our_price" : "25.99", "club_price" : "25.99", "savings_pct" : "0", "savings_amt" : "0.00", "club_savings_pct" : "0", "club_savings_amt" : "0.00", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "" } }

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