Senator Albert Gore, Sr.: Tennessee Maverick

Best remembered as the father of Vice President Al Gore, Albert Gore, Sr., worked tirelessly in politics himself, a Democratic congressman and senator from 1939 to 1971. In the first comprehensive biography of Gore, Kyle Longley has produced an incisive portrait of a significant American political leader and an arresting narrative of the shaping of a southern and American political tradition. Longley describes how this native of Possum Hollow, Tennessee, became known during his political career as a man who, according to one journalist, would "rock almost anybody's boat." For his actions, Gore often paid a heavy price, personally and professionally. Overshadowed by others in Congress such as J. William Fulbright and Barry Goldwater, he nonetheless played a major role on the important issues of taxes, the Interstate Highway system, civil rights, nuclear power and arms control, and the Vietnam War. Longley situates Gore within a staunch group of southern liberals who battled traditional conservative forces, often within their own party. He and others, including Estes Kefauver and Frank Porter Graham, set the stage for subsequent generations--that of Jimmy Carter and Jim Sasser, and later Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Jr., and John Edwards. From Gore's career shines one encapsulating moment in 1952: squared off on the floor of the Senate against Strom Thurmond, who wanted Gore to sign the "Southern Manifesto" declaring southern resistance to desegregation, Gore responded simply, classically, "Hell no."