Thomas E. Patterson’s ’75 monumental biography of Huey Long is a profound reevaluation of his life and legacy, recognizing him as an inspirational progressive thinker, populist hero, and radical influence on the New Deal before an assassin’s bullet ended his life in 1935. First as governor and then as U.S. senator, Long transformed the politics of Louisiana by standing for the interests of citizens whom state officials had historically ignored. He eased suffrage restrictions so that more people could vote, and voters endorsed his program of more robust government services and shifting the tax burden to those better able to pay. In the United States Senate, during the darkest days of the Great Depression, he advocated loudly and ceaselessly for the redistribution of wealth, expanding public works, increasing the money supply, insuring bank deposits, paying old-age pensions and veterans’ benefits, delivering a minimum income for families, and funding college and vocational education. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, along with other politicians and pundits, dismissed Long’s proposals as nonsense put forth by a reckless demagogue in search of votes. Despite several biographies, acclaimed novels, and historical studies in the years since Long’s death, his reputation today is mostly caricature: a spellbinding speaker, a dictator, a populist firebrand who was unprincipled and corrupt. Using previously untapped personal papers of Long and his son Russell, other primary sources, recent scholarship, and his experience as a lawyer, Patterson provides a necessary corrective as he analyzes the contours of Long’s career, deconstructs the elements of his success, undercuts several myths related to his time in office, and explains the circumstances that led to his ultimate downfall. The result is the most comprehensive, balanced, and analytical study of the Kingfish to date. “In American Populist, Thomas E. Patterson provides a much-needed corrective to most of what has been written about Huey Long. Patterson takes seriously the Kingfish’s own words and shows Long to be less of a manipulative, power-hungry, end-justify-the-means demagogue and more of a politician driven by a real concern for those who lacked power and the creator of a viable alternative politics for his time.” ~Michael S. Martin, author of Russell Long: A Life in Politics “Patterson’s American Populist is a fresh and intriguing biography of Louisiana’s most consequential political leader. The author’s exhaustive examination of Huey Long’s life and career will be controversial, but his appraisal of the Kingfish is worthy of our consideration.” ~Robert Mann, author of Kingfish U: Huey Long and LSU. To Preorder online: https://lsupress.org/9780807182994/. Congratulations Tom!
Tom Patterson ’75
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