Big Daddy
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€38.99
1960s
1970s
20th century politics
A01=Bill Boyarsky
ambassador hotel
ambition
american dream
assassination
assembly speaker
assemblyman
Author_Bill Boyarsky
biography
california
california capitol
california politics
Category=DNBH
Category=JPHL
Category=NHK
dc
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
history
jesse unruh
kennedy
lyndon johnson
nonfiction
political
political biography
politician
politics
rebut kennedy
sharecropping
state politics
state treasurer
success
texas
Product details
- ISBN 9780520219670
- Weight: 544g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 26 Nov 2007
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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Revealing and frank, this highly engaging biography tells the story of an American original, California's Big Daddy, Jesse Unruh (1922-1987), a charismatic man whose power reached far beyond the offices he held. Unruh, who was born into Texas sharecropper poverty, became a larger-than-life figure and a principal architect and builder of modern California - first as an assemblyman, then as assembly speaker, and finally, as state treasurer. He was also a great character: a combination of intelligence, wit, idealism, cynicism, woman-chasing vulgarity, charm, drunken excess, and political skill all wrapped up in one big package. He dominated the California capitol and extended his influence to Washington and Wall Street. He was close to Lyndon Johnson and the Kennedys, but closest to Robert Kennedy, and was in the Ambassador Hotel kitchen when Kennedy was shot. Bill Boyarsky gives a close-up look at this extraordinary political leader, a man who believed that politics was the art of the possible, and his era.
Bill Boyarsky is Lecturer at the Annenberg School for Communications, University of Southern California. In his 30 years with the Los Angeles Times, Boyarsky was a political writer, featured columnist, and city editor. He was a member of reporting teams that won three Pulitzer Prizes. He is the author of two biographies of Ronald Reagan. He is author of Los Angeles: City of Dreams; and with his wife, Nancy, he coauthored Backroom Politics.
