Being Rapoport: Capitalist with a Conscience (Focus on American History Series,Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin) [Hardcover]

Bernard Rapoport (Author), Bill Moyers (Introduction), Don E. Carleton (Contributor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0292771177 | ISBN-13: 978-0292771178 | Publication Date: May 15, 2002 | Edition: 1

Bernard Rapoport has lived the American Dream. Born to Russian Jewish immigrant parents in San Antonio, Texas, in 1917, he grew up in poverty and worked his way through the University of Texas during the Great Depression. In 1951, he founded the American Income Life Insurance Company, which he developed into a multi-million dollar business. Using his wealth to support a host of local, national, and international organisations, Rapoport was named by Fortune magazine as one of America's forty most generous philanthropists, unstinting in his support for education, social justice, and liberal political causes. In this memoir, Rapoport recalls a life of hard work and a philosophy of giving that made him a successful entrepreneur and philanthropist. He explains how his early experiences of poverty and his youthful acquaintance with Marxists and New Deal economists shaped him into a capitalist with a conscience. Rapoport goes on to describe his liberal activism as a supporter of Democrats from Ralph Yarborough to Tom Daschle to his good friends Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton, an underwriter of the political journal The Texas Observer, a regent of the University of Texas System, a supporter of the state of Israel, and a champion of at-risk students.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 334 pages
• Publisher: University of Texas Press; 1 edition (May 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0292771177
• ISBN-13: 978-0292771178
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,881,084 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent memoir of a unique American, June 1, 2007

By 

Keith Nichols (Dallas, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Being Rapoport: Capitalist with a Conscience (Focus on American History Series,Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin) (Hardcover)

Bernard Rapoport is one of a kind for many reasons. He's a resoundingly left-leaning, labor-union-supporting insurance company founder and funder of liberal Democratic candidates and causes down in the heart of Texas, where such a fellow is distinctly unusual. For most of his adult life, he's put his money where his mouth is, even when he had to borrow the money. Now that he has considerable of his own money, he and his wife continue on an even grander scale supporting educational projects here and overseas. .

Rapoport has always been politically active, and for anyone who's lived in Texas 50 years or so, his recounting of friendships and dealings with national and local political figures will bring back many memories. Underlying all this is his story of personal accomplishment in raising himself from financially poor beginnings through business perspicacity and sheer force of personality.