Ezra's Bookshelf

Tip O'Neill and the Democratic Century

by John A. Farrell · 776 pages · ~14 hrs

Biography & MemoirPolitics & Government

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Journalist John Farrell chronicles the political life of Thomas P. 'Tip' O'Neill Jr., who served as Speaker of the House during the Reagan years after decades representing his Boston district. O'Neill's career spanned the transformation of American politics from New Deal liberalism through the Reagan revolution, making him witness and participant in the Democratic Party's rise and partial eclipse. Farrell traces O'Neill from his Cambridge Irish roots through his entry into politics, his ascent through House leadership, and his ultimately unsuccessful effort to defend liberal programs against Reagan's conservative assault. The biography captures O'Neill's gifts as a legislator and coalition-builder while not minimizing his limitations in the television age that Reagan mastered. Farrell had access to O'Neill's papers and conducted extensive interviews, providing intimate detail about backroom negotiations and personal relationships that shaped legislation. The book illuminates how the House actually worked during a period when it remained the center of Democratic power, and how O'Neill's old-school politics found itself challenged by the new confrontational style that Newt Gingrich would perfect. For anyone interested in twentieth-century political history, this biography provides essential detail about a figure who embodied one vision of American politics.

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