| Dear Alben: Mr. Barkley of Kentucky Contributor(s): Libbey, James K. (Author) |
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ISBN: 0813192897 ISBN-13: 9780813192895 Publisher: University Press of Kentucky OUR PRICE: $19.00 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: November 2009 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Biography & Autobiography | Presidents & Heads Of State - Biography & Autobiography | Political - History | United States - 20th Century |
| Dewey: B |
| Series: Kentucky Bicentennial Bookshelf |
| Physical Information: 0.32" H x 5" W x 8" (0.34 lbs) 136 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Southeast U.S. - Geographic Orientation - Kentucky - Chronological Period - 20th Century |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Alben Barkley's final words before he was struck down by a heart attack summed up his long, eventful life: "I have served my country and my people for half a century as a Democrat. I went to the House of Representatives in 1913 and served fourteen years. I was a junior Congressman, then I became a senior Congressman, then I went to the Senate and became a junior Senator, and then I became a senior Senator; and then a Majority Leader in the Senate, and then Vice President of the United States, and now I am back again as a junior Senator. And I am willing to be a junior. I'm glad to sit in the back row, for I would rather be a servant in the house of the Lord than sit in the seats of the mighty." Dear Alben: Mr. Barkley of Kentucky traces Kentucky civil servant Alben Barkley's life from humble beginnings in rural Kentucky to the seats of power in the nation's capital. Barkley is revealed as a Wilsonian liberal before he became an apostle of the New Deal. His support of these Democratic programs was the result not so much of party loyalty as of a social conscience that had been honed during the impoverished years of his youth. James K. Libbey brings into clear focus the role of a forceful Kentuckian in national politics in two eras of rapid change and reform. |