302 pages
22 photographs
Advise and Dissent is the personal odyssey of James Abourezk, from his coming of age as the son of Lebanese immigrants in South Dakota, through his hardscrabble days as a farmhand, bartender, bouncer, and cook, to his entrance into and voluntary exit from the U.S. Senate. His is a quintessentially American story that entertains as it challenges the thinking of our nation.
Abourezk refused to compromise his beliefs. He championed Native American self-determination and demanded the creation of a Palestinian state. He challenged the flow of special interest money through political action committees and tried to overthrow the structure that keeps small farmers in an economic stranglehold. His memoir takes the reader on a remarkable and wise tour through the corridors of power. At a time of waning public confidence in government, he makes us realize the importance of participatory democracy.
“Few politicians have written an autobiography as earthy, poignant, witty, and forthright as has James Abourezk. His journey from the Indian country of South Dakota to the U.S. Senate and his struggle on behalf of the victimized, defrauded, and oppressed extend the grand populist-progressive tradition of bygone decades. Travel with Abourezk and see what happens when an irrepressible conscience interacts with the gritty world of politics and its avaricious practitioners in business and government.”—Ralph Nader