Ebook: Desk 88: eight progressive senators who changed America

Since his election to the U.S. Senate in 2006, Sherrod Brown has sat on the Senate floor at a mahogany desk with a proud history. In Desk 88 he tells the story of eight of the senators who were there before him. Despite their flaws and setbacks, each one made a decisive contribution to the creation of a more just America. They range from Hugo Black, the onetime Ku Klux Klansman who helped lift millions of black and white American workers out of poverty, to Robert F. Kennedy, whose eyes were opened by an undernourished Mississippi child and who then spent the rest of his life afflicting the comfortable. Brown revives forgotten figures such as Idaho's Glen Taylor, a singing cowboy who taught himself economics and stood up to segregationists, and offers new insights into better-known ones like George McGovern, who fought to feed the poor around the world even amid personal and political calamities. He also writes about Herbert Lehman of New York, Al Gore Sr. of Tennessee, Theodore Francis Green of Rhode Island, and William Proxmire of Wisconsin. Together, these portraits in political courage tell a story about the triumphs and failures of the progressive idea over the past century. In the 1930s and 1960s, and more intermittently since, politicians and the public successfully fought against entrenched special interests and advanced the causes of economic and racial fairness. Today, these advances are in peril as employers shirk their responsibilities to employees and communities and a U.S. president gives cover to bigotry. But the progressive idea is not dead. Recalling his own career, Brown dramatizes the hard work and high ideals required to renew the social contract and enable Americans of all backgrounds to once again know the "dignity of work.";Prologue: The origins of Desk 88 -- Hugo Black: finding light in the shadows -- Thoughts from Desk 88 -- Theodore Francis Green: a traitor to his class -- Thoughts from Desk 88 -- Glen Taylor: the singing cowboy from Kooskia -- Thoughts from Desk 88 -- Herbert H. Lehman: pursuing a different family business -- Thoughts from Desk 88 -- Al Gore, Sr.: leading from the South -- Thoughts from Desk 88 -- William Proxmire: a workhorse and a showhorse -- Thoughts from Desk 88 -- Robert F. Kennedy: a voice for those without a voice -- Thoughts from Desk 88 -- George McGovern: feeding the hungry -- Thoughts from Desk 88 -- Further thoughts from Desk 88-about 2020 and beyond -- Epilogue: Carving a place in history.