New York City mayor Robert F. Wagner governed during a period of momentous change in local politics. In this era—too often viewed as a mere prelude to the dramatic events of the Lindsay years and the fiscal crisis of the mid 1970s—important policy changes took place in the fields of housing, education, race and labor relations, and in the structures of local governance. This book focuses on the institutional structures that were reconstituted in the three Wagner administrations, the role that the mayor’s own strategic decision making played in forging the political changes of the era, the long-term consequences of Mayor Wagner’s choices for future generations of city politicians and citizens, and the meaning and applicability of the concept of plebiscitary governance in the U.S. urban context.