Richard B. Russell, Jr, Senator from Georgia

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Summary: One Of The Greatest Senators To NEVER Be President
Review: Henry Clay. Daniel Webster. John C. Calhoun. James F. Byrnes. Robert A. Taft. Hubert Humphrey. Add Richard Russell to this list and what do you get? A collection of our nation's most accomplished and able Senators who never became President. All of these men were giants in their time, and Russell was no exception. The youngest Governor in Georgia history, Russell came to Washington as a Senator in 1933 and left in the early 70's, feet first. A legislator of uncommon ability, Russell was a master of the procedures, traditions, and customs of the Senate; of parliamentary tactics; and was constructive on all matters of domestic or foreign policy. His peers referred to him as a 'Senator's Senator', Presidents called him a 'President's Senator'. His hold over Georgia's political and business establishments enabled him to seek reelection every six years unopposed. Unfortunately, his refusal to change his political position or personal attitudes on the issue of civil rights doomed him to be a 'regional Senator' rather than a 'national' one. He sought the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in 1952, but won only the delegates from the states of the Confederacy. Despite the increasing liberalism of his party, Russell the conservative, voted the straight Democratic ticket in every election. Russell was perhaps truly the last great statesman of the Senate.

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Summary: A fast but not really filling read.
Review: Richard B Russell Democrat from Winder Georgia, was an extremely skilled parlimentarian and executive. However he was easy prey for Lyndon Johnson who gave him the shad treatment. In looking at this man's life he accomplished many things but in the end was lacking in 3 things. The courage to step up and lead the Senate and bend it to his will on agricultural and defense issues and an inability to see beyond his roots and their limiting factors he could of broken the mold and become President if he realized that geography and socioeconomic factors would inflict a defacto segragation on America and that once they were done with the Civil rights struggle the north would lose much of it's passion for social reform and change and the nation would be generally like it always was with blacks in the end vanishing into the mostly white Hispanic race. The third thing that I found him lacking in was honor he was but a Lyndon Johnson stepping stone and no Samuel T Rayburn.

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Summary: Story, yes; insight, no.
Review: This book is a straightforward account of the life of one of the 20th century's five most important U.S. senators. However, it falls short in examining Russell's ideology, which is tied to his time and place when it is ever mentioned. A fully satisfactory biography will have to explore the man behind the rise of Lyndon Johnson, the coordinated southern resistance to integration, and much of Senate anti-Communism from an intellectual point of view.