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From Library Journal
Packer has produced a fascinating personal history while examining why people become liberals even though their efforts frequently seem extremely futile. The author describes the life and times of his Alabama-born maternal grandfather, Congressman George Huddleston, whose brand of liberalism was rooted in Southern agrarian populism and who often opposed FDR's New Deal. Packer also tells of his father, Herbert, whose Jewish American background placed him squarely in the urban liberal tradition of the mid-20th century. His father's life and career ultimately came to a turbulent climax as an administrator at Stanford University during the late 1960s. Finally, in a brief, informative, and moving autobiographical section, Packer recounts the development of his own social and political views following his father's stroke and suicide. The author attempts to demonstrate the ongoing relevance to today's world of a political philosophy that many believe has little future. Packer's combination of personal and historical perspectives, as well as his considerable skill at conveying them, make this work both challenging and enjoyable. Written for the lay reader, it nonetheless avoids oversimplification. Highly recommended.DCharles K. Piehl, Minnesota State Univ., Mankato
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

The New York Times Book Review, Jack Hitt
What poverty was to Frank McCourt, what alcoholism was to Mary Karr, what death was to Dave Eggars, liberalism is to George Packer. It's the dysfunction that serves as the larger-than-life force that shapes the people in his book as they wretchedly press up against a thing they can never quite comprehend. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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First Sentence:
In the year of my grandfather's birth, 1869, Ulysses S. Grant became President and General Nathan Bedford Forrest (CSA) resigned as Grand Wizard and dissolved the recently formed Invisible Empire of the Ku Klux Klan, fifty miles south of my grandfather's birthplace in Tennessee. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
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George Huddleston, New Deal, Blood of the Liberals, New York, Democratic Party, Thomas Jefferson Democrat, Martin Luther King, Metropolitan Gardens, San Francisco, White House, Civil War, Herbert Hoover, Richard Nixon, Wall Street, New City Church, United States, Adlai Stevenson, Executive Committee, Fulton Lewis, Palo Alto, President Sterling, Birmingham News, Carl Spaeth, Gerald Austin, Los Angeles New!
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