Summary Of Don T Back No Losers By Milton Rakove

Milton Rakove’s “Don’t Make No Waves…Don’t Back No Losers,” takes an in-depth look at Chicago’s political structure and claims that Chicago’s political machine is not only a model example of successful politics, but also despite criticism, the “durability of the machine, it’s efficiency, and its ability to survive and prosper, despite the urban crisis, cannot be challenged,” (Rakove 3).
Rakove’s title of the book emphasizes the simplistic nature of the machine’s design. As detailed in the text, in order to be successful and preserve the hierarchy chosen for the machine cannot make waves and the political party backing the machine cannot back any losers. While Daley was labeled the head of Chicago’s great political machine, Rakove highlighted

As stated in the text, “Those in office must keep the electorate quiescent, passive, and disinterested, since an aroused, interested electorate will usually react unfavorably towards those in office. How to keep the electorate quiet? ‘Don’t make no waves,’” (12). As Rakove has shown, Daley’s main obligation was to stay quiet, guide the work of others, and lead Chicago into success. If he was able to be a “winner” for the committee, then not only would the democratic party reap the rewards- so could he and those he cared

If he can win and can’t do the party any good, who needs him? If he can win and can do the party harm, who wants him? (96).
While Rakove’s stance on the political machine’s simplistic nature is important. But, there is a key aspect to the machine’s development that cannot be ignored. Chicago’s development was very much dependent on a key aspect of urban politics; that being coincidence. As stated in Intro to Urban Politics- Lecture 2- Historical Development, “And remember, political machines did not develop in a vacuum, they developed out of a response to something,” (18). Chicago’s political machine developed due to the lucky circumstances that arose, the political party’s reactiveness, and the hierarchy’s ability to stay quiet.
A large part of the success was not due to “not making waves” or “not backing losers,” but instead due to random situations such as: massive flood of immigration and migration, the new machinery that drove of capital investment, and key factors like the city’s gain of the railroad over St. Louis. All of these small details and victories pushed Chicago forward and made it a driving force into the Industrial age. It was these small clusters of good events that put Chicago in an influential and powerful