Anthony J. Badger

While most people today associate the name Al Gore with the Nobel laureate and former presidential nominee, two generations ago it was one that brought his father to mind for politically-aware Americans. As first a representative and then a senator, Albert Gore, Sr. represented his state in Congress for over three decades, during which time he played an important role in some of the key legislative achievements of the era. In this book, Anthony Badger, a longtime historian of the twentieth-century South, focuses on Gore's long political career, documenting his accomplishments and revealing how his career reflected the many changes that took place in the region during his decades in office.

Gore's success was all the more remarkable given his background. The son of a farmer, the young Albert Gore grew up in rural Tennessee, where he struggled to gain his educational opportunities. Though he worked as a teacher and went to night school to become a lawyer, his ambitions soon led him to embark upon a career in politics, and after a short period in local and state offices he won election to the House of Representatives in 1938. In the House Gore distinguished himself as a pro-New Deal moderate, though Badger notes the conservatism of his positions on matters such as immigration that reflected both his background and the views of his constituents. Gore's hard work and growing prominence as a legislator paid off in 1952 when he challenged his state's longtime incumbent senator Kenneth McKellar, defeating him for the Democratic nomination and winning election to the United States Senate.

Gore's three terms in the Senate serve as the heart of Badger's book. While he notes that Gore was never one of the great insiders, he describes his important contributions on many subjects, most notably with his championing of the legislation creating the interstate highway system. Yet Gore's tenure coincided with the emergence of civil rights as an issue both within his state and nationally. Though Gore refused to sign the infamous 1957 "Southern Manifesto," Badger shows that Gore was hardly a liberal when it came to civil rights, preferring a more moderate stance that fit with his often populist perspective. While this was sufficient for him to win reelection in 1958 and 1964, Gore's support for civil rights legalization in his final term, along with his prominent opposition to the Vietnam War, combined to alienate many of the conservative white voters in his state, leading to his defeat in his bid for a fourth term in 1970.

In chronicling Gore's political career, Badger employs a lifetime of knowledge gained from his study of both the South and modern American politics. He employs well the extensive archival work he undertook in writing the book, which he supplemented with interviews over several decades with many of the key figures in Gore's political career. The insights he presents of these efforts make his book one that is unlikely to be bettered as an account of the life and times of an important postwar American leader, one who deserves to be remembered as more than just the father of his famous son.… (more)

This is a great little analysis of the Hundred Days of FDR by a famous New Deal/Great Depression historian, Anthony Badger. Even though this book is fairly short (you can read it in one day), it contains a great deal of information for the reader. There is a bibliography at the end so if the reader wants to look at the sources Mr. Badger used or wants to learn more on the subject the resources are there.

I absolutely loved this book. I read it cover to cover in less than a day. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Franklin D. Roosevelt, the New Deal, or the infamous Hundred Days.… (more)