History casts Tammany Hall as shorthand for the worst of urban politics: graft, crime, and patronage personified by notoriously crooked characters. In Machine Made, journalist and historian Terry Golway--who has spent his life examining the Irish American experience--carefully dismantles these stereotypes and presents a starkly revisionist portrait, focusing on the many benefits of machine politics for marginalized and maligned American immigrants. As thousands fled the potato famine and began new lives in New York, the very question of the meaning of democracy and who would be included under its protection was at stake. Tammany's transactional politics were at the heart of crucial social reforms--such as child labor laws, workers' compensation, and minimum wages--and Golway demonstrates that American labor history cannot be understood without Tammany's profound contribution. Golway's groundbreaking work reveals the deep roots of Tammany influence, heretofore woefully overlooked.