Even non-New Yorkers are aware of Mayor Giuliani's leadership following the attack of 9/11. But this book details much more of Giuliani's years as Mayor of N.Y. Siegel portrays the Mayor as a tireless and shrewd tactician and a visionary leader. The book shows how NY was turned around during the Giuliani years, seeing improvements in crime reduction, private housing ownership increases, welfare reduction, quality of life improvements, economy, budget, education, etc., all accomplished while being able to reduce taxes. People who see educational improvement and poverty reduction as being proportional to spending may not like what they read here, since Giuliani was able to forge improvements by introducing work-fare vs. welfare and fighting for educational program improvements by cutting waste. Many interesting stories and details, and you have to look favorably upon the Giulaini approach to governance when compared to Mayor Lindsey, Mayor Dinkins, etc.

While generally very supportive of Giuliani, his self-promoting and self-absorbed side, and his enormous ego do come out in the book. There's not much here to convince you that being a good mayor make him a good Presidential candidate, and the 2008 presidential primary results reflected, but it's a good description of leadership can impact how cities thrive or die. ( )