A new book co-authored by Wagner College Professor Seymour Lachman and former Newsday journalist Robert Polner documents the life and political career of former New York Governor Hugh Carey. The book, published in July by Excelsior Editions, an imprint of SUNY Press, is “The Man Who Saved New York: Hugh Carey and the Great Fiscal Crisis of 1975.”
Carey, who served for 14 years as U.S. congressman from Brooklyn (1961-1974), was governor of New York from 1975 through 1982. As soon as Carey took office in Albany, he was faced with a fiscal crisis that threatened to bring down both the state of New York and New York City.
“The Man Who Saved New York” may be the most relevant modern political history published this year. It reads eerily like a déją vu of the fiscal crisis likely to face whomever becomes the governor of New York next January — and every other governor of every other state in the Union.
“The Man Who Saved New York” is written by the same team who wrote “Three Men in a Room: The Inside Story of Power and Betrayal in an American Statehouse,” published in 2006 by the New Press. “Three Men in a Room” is an insider’s critique of the way power in the New York state capital is concentrated in the hands of the governor and the leaders of the two legislative houses — and the damage that arrangement does to the conduct of the peoples’ affairs in Albany.
THE AUTHORS
Seymour Lachman, a former president of the New York City Board of Education and dean of the City University of New York, served five terms in the New York state senate before joining the faculty of Wagner College as distinguished professor and director of the Hugh L. Carey Institute for Government Reform.
Robert Polner, an award-winning journalist who covered Rudy Giuliani’s City Hall for Newsday, edited the 2005 book, “America’s Mayor: The Hidden History of Rudy Giuliani’s New York.” He is a public affairs officer for New York University and its Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. Read Polner's personal take on the wisdom of Gov. Carey in a CNN Opinion essay.
READ THE REVIEWS by:
WATCH A VIDEO (below) of Lachman, Polner and Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch discussing “The Man Who Saved New York” on New York 1’s “Inside City Hall,” which aired on June 30, 2010.
On July 23, 2010, Seymour Lachman was interviewed by New York Post state government editor Fred Dicker on Albany, N.Y. talk radio station WGDJ-AM. The topic: "The Man Who Saved New York." Listen to the interview by clicking on the radio icon to the left.
Later on July 23, Time-Warner Cable's YNN news channel broadcast an interview by political reporter Liz Benjamin with Seymour Lachman and Robert Polner, authors of a new political biography of former Gov. Hugh L. Carey, entitled "The Man Who Saved New York." The interview was aired on the program, "Capital Tonight." WATCH IT HERE:
FOR MORE INFORMATION about “The Man Who Saved New York,” visit the SUNY Press website or Amazon.com.
THE CAREY INSTITUTE for Government Reform, directed by Prof. Seymour Lachman, has its own web pages on the Wagner College website.
