Ed Koch and the Spirit of Our Times

Ed Koch and the Spirit of Our Times

Ed Koch is apt to conclude a boisterous community meeting with a warning. “Just remember,” he chides disgruntled New Yorkers in that shrill, pedantic singsong of his, “if you don’t like what I’m doing, you can vote me out! I’ll get a better job, but you’ll never get a better mayor.”

The hecklers are outflanked; the mayor leaves the room in a blaze of glory. His critics may rage against the thralldom in which he holds the little people he&...