The Napoleon of New York

the long version

"Fiorello La Guardia was short of stature, but big of heart. This cigar-puffing, roly-poly mayor with a squeaky voice was affectionately nicknamed "The Little Flower" and "Hizzoner" by those who adored him. Yet those who worked beside him and knew him best were witnesses to La Guardia's other side: a driven, headstrong, personally insecure figure, about whom Robert Moses once detected "omniscience and megalomania." The Napoleon of New York provides a fresh perspective of Fiorello La Guardia's life and mayorality. Here, author H. Paul Jeffers takes a new spin on this beloved mayor by contrasting the public's benevolent image of him that has lasted through seven decades with a complex, paradoxical, and cunning politician who was as tough and unforgiving as the city he governed."--BOOK JACKET.