Huey Long by T. Harry Williams Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Huey Long
Book Review: Useful but lumbering, borders on hero worship
Summary: 3 Stars
Because Dr. Williams so thoroughly details Huey Long's fascinating life, this book is important. Especially interesting is Dr. Williams' portrait of the young Huey Long and his rise. However, the book often gets bogged down in the Byzantine world of Louisiana politics. It is often plodding. More disappointing is the lack of critical analysis. Basically, Dr. Williams believes Huey Long could do no wrong. Long's conservative enemies were all bad people who wanted to keep the downtrodden in their place. Dr. Williams does not acknowledge that Long's political enemies might have philosophical differences with him. Long's enemies are not really persons in this book; they're all the same caricature.Book Review: Wonderful!
Summary: 5 Stars
This was one of the better biographies I've ever read. It was entertaining from start to finish and gave a detailed portrait of the man that was Huey Long, as well as of the world of Great Depression era Louisiana politics. Long was a flamboyant and interesting character. His politics while effective in most cases, were extremely divisive. He was among the first to take advantage of radio and ran extremely sophisticated political campaigns for his time. The book relies heavily on interviews with those who knew him and contains many highly entertaining stories about him. The one minor criticism of the book it that it doesn't talk much about the aftermath of his death. (Long was shot by the son-in-law of a political enemy shortly after he became a national figure and as he was preparing to challenge FDR for the presidency.) All in all, it is an excellent and entertaining read.Book Review: detailed but fairly uncritical
Summary: 3 Stars
This lengthy tome is a fascinating read. Williams captures the Kingfish in all his colorful glory, from his early days as a salesman to his law career (championing, of course, underdogs), from his years on the Louisiana Railroad Commission through his governorship to his time in the U.S. Senate. Long was clearly a talented politician, and one gets the sense that he would have been a powerful figure in Louisiana even had the Depression not come. But Long was able to use the economic woes to increase his standing in the state, to flesh out a very progressive agenda, and to gain national prominence. There is at least mild reason to suspect that had he not been assassinated in September 1935, Long could have given FDR a run for his money in 1936. Williams overstates this case and understates the pure political savvy of Roosevelt, who played a nice game of "triangulation" by adopting some (though never all) of Long's positions and sapping some of his support. (Alan Brinkley demonstrates this brilliantly in his VOICES OF PROTEST.)
This points up one of the book's biggest (almost devasting) flaws: it is overly sympathetic to Long. Williams tells an amazing story, dropping just the right anecdote at just the right time, and he manages to explain the strange, arcane world of Louisiana politics. But too often, he refuses to cast a critical eye on the Kingfish. Sometimes, this takes the shape of the old ends justifying the means excuse: Huey might have resorted to undemocratic means, but it was mostly forgivable since he pursued noble causes that benefited the poor and downtrodden. Other times, Williams blames Long's opposition (which he paints as a bumbling bunch of conservative--though, of course, Democratic--fools) for Long's excesses: since his opponents usually put up weak resistance, if any at all, Long was justified in steamrolling over them. Until almost the very end, until the evidence becomes overwhelming, Williams refuses to criticize Long for his undemocratic methods. He makes the case that power corrupts, but Long became corrupt long before Williams admits he did.
Even so, this is the "classic" biography of Huey Long and very much worth a read for anyone interested in Long, Louisiana, or the Depression era.
Book Review: exciting at first, then loses focus; also too pro-Long
Summary: 3 Stars
basically the 1 line above says it. the writing kind of peters out and becomes tiresome even, although Long personally is always fascinating. Also, Williams seems to think Long's abuse of power and corruption were amusing. maybe for the historian. a better read by far would be the great classic, Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men. of course that's fiction, but so is some of Williams's interpretation.Book Review: exciting at first, then loses focus; also too pro-Long
Summary: 3 Stars
basically the 1 line above says it. the writing kind of peters out and becomes tiresome even, although Long personally is always fascinating. Also, Williams seems to think Long's abuse of power and corruption were amusing. maybe for the historian. a better read by far would be the great classic, Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men. of course that's fiction, but so is some of Williams's interpretation.