An edition of Estes Kefauver (1980)

Estes Kefauver

A Biography

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Last edited by Scott365Bot
October 20, 2023 | History
An edition of Estes Kefauver (1980)

Estes Kefauver

A Biography

  • 0 Ratings
  • 0 Want to read
  • 0 Currently reading
  • 0 Have read

xv, 424 pages : 24 cm

Publish Date
Language
English
Pages
424

Buy this book

Previews available in: English

Edition Availability
Cover of: Estes Kefauver
Estes Kefauver: A Biography
1980, University of Tennessee Press
Hardback in English

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Book Details


Edition Notes

Bibliography: p. 409-411.
Includes index.

Published in
Knoxville

Classifications

Dewey Decimal Class
973.9/092/4, B
Library of Congress
E748.K314 F66

The Physical Object

Format
Hardback
Pagination
xv, 424 p. :
Number of pages
424

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL4423661M
Internet Archive
esteskefauverbio0000font
ISBN 10
0870492624
LCCN
79028299
OCLC/WorldCat
5831643
Library Thing
5473971
Goodreads
2681981

Work Description

Estes Kefauver, Senator from Tennessee (1949-63), has been a perplexing figure: instigator and ringmaster of several important congressional probes--including the investigation into organized crime that first put him in the spotlight--and a serious candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1952 and '56 (when he was Stevenson's running mate), Kefauver was often accused of demagoguery, laziness, and even of corruption (by Bobby Baker, an expert himself). Fontenay, a former Nashville newspaperman and friend of Kefauver's who did the work for a campaign biography, The Kefauver Story, published under Jack Anderson's name in 1956, doesn't resolve any of the controversies. After a long and reverential treatment of Kefauver's Tennessee boyhood and early career in law, Fontenay devotes another long section to the nuts-and-bolts of his senatorial and presidential campaigns, into which is inserted the story of the anti-crime commission. The emphasis on Kefauver's campaigning--possibly thought to be justified by his reputation as a campaigner--only tends to fortify the charge, denied by Fontenay, that Kefauver maneuvered the hearings to give himself maximum exposure for a presidential race. And in the last third of the book the thought lingers that Kefauver still harbored presidential hopes when he assumed control of Senate Antitrust and Monopoly Subcommittee and began a long string of battles against monopolies and price-fixing. Crucial to this effort was John Blair, an economist and longtime anti-trust specialist who did the committee's legwork; but Fontenay focuses narrowly on Kefauver and fails to explore the relationship between the two. As for corruption, Fontenay can't imagine Kefauver as corrupt, though he has to admit the Senator's lust for women (staff members even acted as procurers on occasion) and for scotch. Throughout, Kefauver appears as a loner who was anathema to the Democratic leadership (Eastland hated him; and while Kefauver was ""spotty"" on civil rights, his opposition to the poll tax was enough to incur Southern wrath); but the demagogic tag still hangs on. An adulatory biography that's spotty, moreover, on the all-important anti-trust years.

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Download catalog record: RDF / JSON
October 20, 2023 Edited by Scott365Bot import existing book
June 18, 2022 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
July 4, 2019 Edited by mountainaxe1 Added new cover
July 4, 2019 Edited by mountainaxe1 Edited without comment.
December 9, 2009 Created by WorkBot add works page