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Kingfish: The Reign of Huey P. Long

by: Richard White

: Kingfish: The Reign of Huey P. Long
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 976.3062092
EAN: 9780812973839
ISBN: 0812973836
Label: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Manufacturer: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 400
Publication Date: September 19, 2006
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Release Date: September 19, 2006
Sales Rank: 341913
Studio: Random House Trade Paperbacks



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Product Description:
From the moment he took office as governor in 1928 to the day an assassin’s bullet cut him down in 1935, Huey Long wielded all but dictatorial control over the state of Louisiana. A man of shameless ambition and ruthless vindictiveness, Long orchestrated elections, hired and fired thousands at will, and deployed the state militia as his personal police force. And yet, paradoxically, as governor and later as senator, Long did more good for the state’s poor and uneducated than any politician before or since. Outrageous demagogue or charismatic visionary? In this powerful new biography, Richard D. White, Jr., brings Huey Long to life in all his blazing, controversial glory.
White taps invaluable new source material to present a fresh, vivid portrait of both the man and the Depression era that catapulted him to fame. From his boyhood in dirt-poor Winn Parish, Long knew he was destined for power–the problem was how to get it fast enough to satisfy his insatiable appetite. With cunning and crudity unheard of in Louisiana politics, Long crushed his opponents in the 1928 gubernatorial race, then immediately set about tightening his iron grip. The press attacked him viciously, the oil companies howled for his blood after he pushed through a controversial oil processing tax, but Long had the adulation of the people. In 1930, the Kingfish got himself elected senator, and then there was no stopping him.
White’s account of Long’s heyday unfolds with the mesmerizing intensity of a movie. Pegged by President Roosevelt as “one of the two most dangerous men in the country,” Long organized a radical movement to redistribute money through his Share Our Wealth Society–and his gospel of pensions for all, a shorter workweek, and free college spread like wildfire. The Louisiana poor already worshiped him for building thousands of miles of roads and funding schools, hospitals, and universities; his outrageous antics on the Senate floor gained him a growing national base. By 1935, despite a barrage of corruption investigations, Huey Long announced that he was running for president.
In the end, Long was a tragic hero–a power addict who squandered his genius and came close to destroying the very foundation of democratic rule. Kingfish is a balanced, lucid, and absolutely spellbinding portrait of the life and times of the most incendiary figure in the history of American politics.


From the Hardcover edition.



Customer Reviews
Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - Tie with Williams for being definitive, but more entertaining
I agree that the Williams book is one of the archetypal American biographies, but this book is far ... Read More


Rating: 3 out of 5 stars - Strangely Flat
There is something strangely flat about this biography of Huey Long. I agree with the other (at this ... Read More


Rating: 2 out of 5 stars - A Tale of Two Parkers
I have a personal rule against reviewing a book I have not read in its entirety. In this case, however, ... Read More


Rating: 4 out of 5 stars - A very good bio of the Kingfish, but not as good as the Williams' masterpiece
Huey P. Long is my favorite political figure of all time. Since I read T. Harry Williams' masterful bio ... Read More


Rating: 4 out of 5 stars - Good book for what it is
This book concentrates on the breathtaking few years that Huey Long was in office. He was an amazing politician ... Read More

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Copyright ©2003, Mark Carey.