Governing Gotham: Lessons from Rudolph Giuliani’s Successes and Failures

Fred Siegel, author of Prince of the City: Giuliani, New York and the Genius of American Life (Encounter Books, 2005) will participate in a panel discussion with David Brooks of the New York Times and Michael Tomasky of the American Prospect to discuss the impact of Giuliani’s reign as one of New York City’s most prominent and controversial mayors. The panelists will discuss Giuliani’s economic,
welfare reform, and crime-fighting policies as well as the negative factors that still affect the city.

Siegel, one of the country’s leading authorities on urban politics, offers a fascinating character study of Rudolph Giuliani, a history of New York over the last forty years, and a classic inquiry into how cities thrive or decline. In this first post-9/11 account of the career of the former mayor, Siegel shows how Giuliani’s successes in New York demonstrated that Gotham was indeed “governable” and that our major cities can again become vibrant and dynamic places to live and work after thirty years of middle-class flight.

A question and answer session will follow the panelist’s remarks.