Though George Norris was born and grew up in Ohio, he headed west after earning his law degree and set up practice in Nebraska, eventually settling in McCook. Elected to the House of Representatives in 1902 and the Senate in 1912, Norris was a Republican for most of his life but headed a wing called the Progressives, who believed the government should be more responsive to the needs of ordinary citizens. Norris believed it his duty to vote according to conscience even if that sometimes conflicted with party affiliation or popular sentiment. Beyond personal integrity, Norris also left a considerable legacy of achievements: he promoted the nonpartisan one-house Unicameral in Nebraska, led the effort to create the Tennessee Valley Authority, and sponsored the Rural Electrification Act. Fighting Liberal is Norris’s account of his amazing and admirable life from the early impoverished years that informed his populist philosophy to his career in government, where he made great contributions to the nation.

George W. Norris (1861–1944) served his Nebraska district in the House of Representatives for ten years and represented the state in the U.S. Senate from 1913 to 1943.

 

Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. (1917–2007) was a historian and author who won the Pulitzer Prize twice.

 

Bob Kerrey was governor of Nebraska from 1983 to 1987 and represented the state in the U.S. Senate from 1989 to 2001. He is president of the New School in New York City.

“Norris writes as he spoke, plainly and bluntly, and the philosophy he puts forward, a mixture of Populism, Christianity, and the New Deal, is the philosophy he lived by. Few modern American legislators left a more substantial record of achievement behind them.”—New Yorker

“Always a valuable servant of the Republic, Norris in his last years had become a valuable servant of world regeneration; and his autobiography is a valuable testament of both services.”—Allan Nevins, New York Times

“[Fighting Liberal is about] one of the most remarkable careers in American Congressional history.”—Richard L. Neuberger, Saturday Review of Literature