Warren G. Magnuson and the Shaping of Twentieth-Century America

by Shelby Scates

Overview

Warren G. Magnuson served as U.S. senator from the state of Washington for six terms. The sheer sweep of his accomplishments is astonishing: authoring the 1964 Civil Rights Act, protecting Puget Sound, saving Boeing for Seattle, championing consumer protection legislation, reorganizing the railroads, and godfathering the electrification of the Pacific Northwest by pressing for Columbia and Snake River dams. He pushed for federal aid to education, kept Pentagon budgets down, and established the National Institutes of Health while arguing throughout the McCarthy era against U.S. isolation from China. He was also a whiskey-and-poker companion to Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780295995342
Publisher:	University of Washington Press
Publication date:	09/01/2015
Series:	Emil and Kathleen Sick Book Series in Western History and Biography
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	403
Sales rank:	964,454
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Shelby Scates was a prize-winning journalist and columnist for International News Service, United Press International, the Associated Press, and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. He is the author of War and Politics by Other Means: A Journalist's Memoir.

Table of Contents

Preface

Seattle, May 24, 1989

Fargo/Moorhead

Seattle, 1925

Mr. Smooth

Depression

Young Man in a Hurry

New Deal, New World, the "Soviet of Washington"

Mr. Magnuson Goes to Washington

"Ensign" Magnuson

Adonis from Congress

Horses, Flaxseed, and Dutiful Son

Commander Magnuson

War, Politics, and McGoozle

Senator Magnuson

The "Pol's Pol," the Playboy's Playboy

Cold War, Monkey Business

Maggie, Scoop, and Overdrafts

The Sinner and the Saint

American Prime Time

Camelot and Comeback

Triumph, Cuba, and Trouble

Bumblebees

Civil Rights: The Whole Load of Hay Falls on Maggie

The Sixties

Revival

"Scoop and Maggie"

The Prime of Public Interest

The Great Dictator

A Time to Go

Coming Home: The Green Light

Notes

Index

Editorial Reviews

A biography of Magnuson from his 1905 birth to his death in Seattle in 1989. The bulk of the volume discusses Magnuson's six terms as senator from the state of Washington from 1944 to 1981. During this time Magnuson was responsible for a host of legislative accomplishments: authoring the Civil Rights Act, protecting Puget sound, keeping Boeing in Seattle, championing consumer protection legislation, reorganizing the railroads, and pressing for the Columbia and Snake River dams. The author draws on Magnuson's official papers and hundreds of personal interviews with his friends and colleagues to construct his narrative. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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