Reviews for Horatio Gates: A Biography

The average rating for Horatio Gates: A Biography based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-06-16 00:00:00 Roger Williams If this biography had to have a subtitle it would be 'care of a legend'. Patrick J. Maney's book is the story of Robert M. LaFollette,Jr. the dutiful son of a progressive legend who succeeded his father in the Senate at the minimal age of 30. LaFollette in fact never did anything else in his life, but work for and succeed dad in the Senate until he was defeated in 1946. Fighting Bob LaFollette was a Representative in Congress, Governor of Wisconsin at the turn of the last century and went to the US Senate in 1905. LaFollette who inaugurated so many progressive reforms in Wisconsin it became a model for others to copy. In the Senate he proudly stated in his own autobiography that he never accepted half a loaf compromises. He led a block of liberal Senators in the Republican party for 20 years and his last effort even though he was in bad health was to run for president on a reconstituted Progressive Party in 1924 because he found little difference between Calvin Coolidge and John W. Davis the Democratic candidate. Bob, Jr. worked for his father immediately after graduating college stepped right into the seat and held it for 22 more years. Both he and brother Phillip LaFollette who became governor of Wisconsin for a few terms held their father in the highest esteem and did what they could to keep the tradition alive. So much so that they founded a Progressive third party which competed at first successfully with the Democrats and Republicans. LaFollette himself was re-elected in both 1934 and 1940 under that label. Phil LaFollette was the political organizer, Bob just saw himself as the Senator tending and preserving dad's legacy. When Phil joined the army as he did in the first World War the organizational structure of the party fell apart. Bob never interested himself in that aspect of politics. It cost him in 1946 when he decided to run again under the Republican banner. It further cost him that in the LaFollette tradition he was an isolationist like dad was during the first World War. But after the attack on Pearl Harbor, a lot of pre-war isolationists all of a sudden became quite vulnerable and LaFollette was no exception. In the 30s he backed most of FDR's New Deal even advocating some policies before the Roosevelt administration took them up. Bob Jr. even supported FDR's Supreme Court packing plan. But on foreign policy he was against entry into World War II. After Pearl Harbor many of them lost their seats. Thirdly though LaFollette was involved in 1946 with a landmark piece of legislation, the LaFollette- Monroney Act which was a reorganization of Congress itself, cutting down the number of committees and streamlining the legislative process. It passed but on August 2 and the Wisconsin primary that year was August 13. LaFollette left himself 11 days to campaign against his challenger a former Circuit Judge named Joseph R. McCarthy. And McCarthy beat him ending the LaFollette tradition in the Senate. As McCarthy went on to his infamous career it unnerved a sensitive Bob, Jr. more and more. In 1953 LaFollette shot himself, a truly tragic end for a man who felt he let both a legacy and a parent down. His was a worthwhile career that came to a sad end. This is a book well worth reading.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-01-29 00:00:00 Eric Wilen Rev. Barker's story is encouraging and faith stretching. He lives his life expecting God to answer prayer and watching that answer unfold in his life and the lives of those around him.