A bit of a slog. But still a thorough look at how the myth of Rudy came to be. Mostly due to Rudy's tireless efforts to make it so.

Giuliani as a mayor was concerned with huge gap in the
City’s budget. Concerned with getting elected mayor he refused to accept Dinkin’s proposals to shore up building codes at the World Trade Center after the 1993 building. Giuliani was obsessed with getting ahold of the airports which were under the Port Authority and selling them to private companies. When he was thwarted and took it out on them by withholding funding and scaring away people who used to buy bonds or pay fees at the Trade Center. Giuliani never tried to get the police and fire to work together better and make sure they had good equipment. He many not have been able to. He was heavily involved in big Pharma and promoted OxyContin. Many in government were shocked when he tried to get them to change the laws so he could serve a third term. No one knows where he was at all times during 9/11. He has told different stories. He’s not a great person. Now we know he is worse.

I loved the man but then this book came around. Read it to find out.

This book really revealed much about Giuliani that I did not know. Basically, I didn't know anything about him - just went by his actions on Sept 11 and the few days after, when he displayed such leadership.
It was such an illuminating read about how all the things that happened before 2001 factored into the tragedies that occured that day. From the location of the emergency center to the brand and types of radios the fire department used.
Got the feeling from these authors that they really know NYC, and they have a keen understanding of how politics is played there. The bottom line, Rudy Giuliani's pretty good, but not the hottest sh!t.

Every New Yorker should read this book. A really detailed account of how Guiliani did nothing on 9/11 except for his previous inactions that ended up in the death of so many firefighters. Giuliani was just as useful on 9/11 as I was sitting in my house in Queens at the ripe old age of 1.

Can Gullian's Response Sustain A Whole Book?

First of all, I have to say I didnt read the promo close enough, and mistakenly thought this was a full bio. Having read about 20 % of the book so far, it's been interesting, but a little repetitive. And , quite frankly, I'm wondering if Gulliani's accomplishments and failures can sustain a full book. Guess I'll continue reading & find out.

Found this book very hard to get into. Feels like a lot of needless repetition. Seems informative but too drawn out.

Alternate subtitle: Giuliani has always been awful.

The tragedy of 9/11 was compounded by mistakes that were made at the city and federal levels. America's mayor is a myth.

The first section and last section are really focused on 9/11 and are great. The middle is about mismanagement and bad decisions throughout the 1990s and, while it's an important part of the overall argument, it gets a little dull. But worth reading for the good stuff on either side, and you can just skim the middle.

Clearly the myth of Guiliani has been exagerated. Why then does he seem to still be teflon

Another political tome I read during the political primaries of 2008. Giuliani rose to notoriety on the coattails of 9/11, at which disaster he really did very little other than to appear heroic. The book was more about 9/11 than it was about Giuliani, though. I was really interested in the chapters on the health aftermath.

"All in all, the efforts in the months immediately following the attack looked like an extraordinarily passive governmental [state and federal] response to a clear and specific health threat."

"...almost every failure on the part of the federal government was accompanied by a failure of New York City's leadership to press the case for stronger action."