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Raising Hell for Justice
The Washington Battles
of a Heartland Progressive
David R. Obey
Publication
date September 2007
496 pp. 6 x 9 19 b/w photos
ISBN-13: 978-0-299-22540-7 Cloth $35.00 t
(ISBN-10: 0-299-22540-2)
Press Release
You can access the press release for Obey's
book at Obey press release in plain text.
Blurbs:
"Dave Obey's story reminds
us that in a city of quicksand it is still possible to stand
on principle as a servant of your ideals and the public."—Bill
Moyers, author of Moyers on America
"Raising Hell for Justice is
a powerful and enlightening political memoir by one of America's
all-time great legislators. Obey is one of a vanishing breed
in Congress whose entire career in public life has been committed
to both advancing a principled agenda and working constructively
with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to hammer out agreements
that advance that agenda. Obey burns with a passion sparked by
his childhood experience growing up in an economically vulnerable
working class family and channeled into politics and policy-making
by his embrace of Catholic social justice and La Follette progressivism.
His compelling memoir demonstrates how ennobling and satisfying
a career in the first branch of government can be."–Thomas
E. Mann, W. Averell Harriman Chair and senior fellow in governance
studies, Brookings Institution
Reviews:
"Raising Hell for Justice: The Washington Battles of
a Heartland Progressive
By David R. Obey (University of Wisconsin Press)
Stuart Levitan on Friday 9/14/2007 in The Daily Page
How did an angry kid from an unhappy working-class home in Wausau
become the longest-serving member of Congress in Wisconsin history
and the powerful chair of the House Appropriations Committee?
"Life takes funny bounces," U.S. Rep. Dave Obey writes
in this important and engrossing memoir, which ably blends personal
revelations, insightful political analyses and a progressive
call-to-arms.
A man with more passion than patience, given to the occasional
fiery outburst—witness his notorious hallway encounter with
an antiwar Marine mom—Obey is likely the only member of
Congress to have slugged a nun. (In his defense, she hit first).
That same intensity fueled his fight against the economic program
of Ronald Reagan—the congressional work of which he's most
proud.
Now a self-described Social Gospel Democrat, Obey grew up in
a Republican family and even campaigned for Sen. Joe McCarthy.
But when McCarthyites on the school board went after Obey's favorite
teacher, his political metamorphosis began. In 1962, at age 24,
he was elected state representative.
It was Richard Nixon who gave Obey his next break, by appointing
Wausau Congressman Melvin Laird as his first secretary of Defense.
Obey stared down one potential candidate, future state schools
superintendent Bert Grover, easily dispatched quirky biochemist
(and future Madison mayoral candidate) Will Sandstrom in the
primary, and—on April Fool's Day, 1969—eked out a stunning
victory over Walter John Chilsen.
Obey came to Washington as the youngest member of the House.
Now he's its third most senior. He has plenty of stories, and
he tells them well.
Although his ideals are firm, Obey reveals he's changed his mind
about some issues—notably, he now supports Gerald Ford's
pardon of Richard Nixon. That's one reason he ranks Ford first
among his seven presidents. Then it's Clinton, Carter, George
H.W. Bush ("decent, clueless"), Reagan ("disastrous"),
Nixon ("knowledgeable, malevolent") and Bush ("the
most destructive of all"). He's suitably steamed about Newt
Gingrich ("a political sociopath" as venal as McCarthy),
but is quite warm for Newt's almost-successor, the "decent
and courageous" Rep. Robert Livingston, snared in a sex
scandal as he was about to become speaker.
Obey wrote this book as a rejoinder to Tommy Thompson's preposterous
notion that conservatives are the true heirs to Robert M. La
Follette, and to give an account of modern government and politics
that could stand alongside La Follette's autobiography.
He's met both goals."—The Daily Page
[The review is located at http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=8470]
Author's
Bio:
David R. Obey (D-Wausau) is the longest-serving
member of the U.S. Congress in Wisconsin history and is the current
chair of the House Appropriations Committee. In the 1980s and
early 1990s, he chaired the Foreign Operations Subcommittee,
which funded America's economic and political response to the
collapse of the Soviet Union.
For more information, in addition to this
press kit, contact our publicity manager, phone: (608) 263-0734,
email: publicity@uwpress.wisc.edu
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Hell for Justice]
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Cover image:
This cover image can be downloaded
and used in any web-based publicity for this book. For
a 300 dpi version, click here.
Author Photo:
These images can be downloaded
and used in any web-based publicity for this book. For
a 300 dpi version, click here.
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