Gangs of New York
I have finished reading Gangs of New York by Herbert Asbury. This was recommended by Jimmy Robertson as being one of the two books you need to read to understand all of politics. I can't remember the other one, it may have been Capital. Yes, the Tammany Hall story is pervasive, but the book doesn't really say enough about the links between gangsters and politicians, and gangsters and the police, or of the quantities of money involved, or of ethnic issues, or of the nature of the insulation around the elites, to give a properly thorough class in political anatomy. Worse, the historiography is distinctly suspect - it's like reading the Daily Mail from 120 years ago, so not really trustworthy. But it is still an entertaining read for connoisseurs of ironic prose.