Governing the Ungovernable City
Vincent J. Cannato, The Weekly Standard—As an "immoderate centrist" himself (and former Giuliani adviser), Siegel is the right person to tell this story. The Prince of the City is a compelling work of political biography and urban history. It should be required reading for those looking for clues to Giuliani's potential as a 2008 presidential candidate.
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The Ego That Saved the City
Alan Ehrenhalt, The Wall Street Journal—Siegel was deeply involved in the city politics of the 1990s, sometimes as a freelance adviser to Mr. Giuliani, sometimes as a disappointed critic, sometimes as a recipient of the cold shoulder that nearly all the mayor's associates learned to expect from time to time. But he came out an admirer, one who believes that Mr. Giuliani took on a city that seemed all but ungovernable and came closer to governing it than any mayor in modern times.
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The Right Man
Richard Brookhiser, National Review—Siegel is an intellectual and a raconteur who collects bright details like a magpie, and remembers damning facts with the stern impartiality of Rhadamanthus, judge of the underworld. He has seen the clowns tumble, and he knows where the bodies are buried.
The City's Savior
Terry Golway, New York Observer—The Prince of the City is the work of a serious scholar and a brilliant public policy analyst. Siegel's interest is not in explaining the contradictions between Giuliani's absolutist public persona and his relativist private life, but in demonstrating how he transformed a city many considered to be ungovernable.
A Guy With Gumption
John Leo, US News and World Report—Before he was elected in 1993, there were more than 2,000 murders a year there, compared with under 600 today. The city's welfare population, 1.1 million people, was about the size of the entire population of San Diego, the sixth-largest U.S. city. A poll showed that 60 percent of adult New Yorkers would like to leave the city. said, often with a tone of perverse pride.
Giuliani's Legacy
New York Post Editorial—Prince offers important context for this year's mayoral race [and] the mayoral candidates can benefit by a careful reading of the book.
How Rudy Conquered New York
Francis Morrone, The New York Sun—Fred Siegel writing on Rudolph Giuliani is a match made in heaven. Both men exemplify the feisty, independent spirit of New Yorkers at their best. I say "at their best." … Siegel is one of the most independent-minded urban commentators in America. A man of broadly social democratic sympathies who has never underestimated the power of conservative ideas, he writes from a position of great moral as well as intellectual authority.