144 pages
11 photographs
After forty years of congressional service, five terms in the House and five in the Senate, George William Norris (1861–1944) was going home to Nebraska. Norris had lost the 1942 Senate race and felt the defeat keenly. But as his train rolled westward, he was forcefully reminded of what his legislative efforts had wrought, from the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to the Rural Electrification Act (REA), which brought power to the land unfolding before him. It is here that authors Gene A. Budig and Don Walton begin their journey with this great statesman, perhaps the last progressive Republican, a tireless champion of “public power” and the common man.
This book carries readers back through Norris’s career and accomplishments: the establishment of the TVA and the REA as well as the Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution and the shaping of Nebraska’s unique unicameral legislature. Norris recalls the battles he waged, one of which landed him in John F. Kennedy’s Profiles in Courage, and the alliances he formed with leading political figures of his day, from Fiorello La Guardia to Franklin D. Roosevelt. The result is a contemporary perspective on a man who fiercely defended the public interest and followed his convictions to the lasting benefit of his state and his country.
“A remarkable account of the life of one of the most influential politicians in the last hundred years. . . . His extraordinary achievements for all American people offer a rare glimpse at what can be achieved when people and politicians put aside narrow interests. . . . Budig and Walton have produced a short and powerful document that draws on the reflections of the Senator and others who knew him at the end of his life. It would serve us well if a copy of this book were in every school library across the country.”—Richard Sterling, former president of the National Writing Commission
List of Illustrations 000
Preface 000
Introduction 000
One 000
Two 000
Three 000
Four 000
Five 000
Six 000
Seven 000
Eight 000
Nine 000
Ten 000
Eleven 000
Twelve 000
Thirteen 000
Fourteen 000
Fifteen 000
Sixteen 000
