“Fred Harris has long practiced politics that really matters (what I call ‘politics with hair on it’), daring to challenge the powers that be on behalf of the powers that ought to be: workaday people who are being knocked down and held down by the privileged few. So meet this guy who’s had the guts, moral stamina, and sense of humor to keep battling the big shots, bastards, and bullshitters for decades, laughing all the way! His memoir is both the tao of Fred and a joyous romp through his lifetime of real politics done right.”—Progressive populist Democrat Jim Hightower
Description
Fred Harris is the last surviving member of the Kerner Rights Commission, famously created by President Lyndon Johnson following the terrible riots, disorders, and violent protests that exploded in so many of America’s cities in the “long hot summer” of 1967. He is the last survivor of the 1964 “Four Back Bench US Senators,” which consisted of Walter Mondale of Minnesota, Joseph Tydings of Maryland, Fred Harris of Oklahoma, and Robert Kennedy of New York. He is also the senior surviving former member of the US Senate and one of two “last surviving” Democratic presidential candidates to run in 1976—the other being President Jimmy Carter Jr.
Report from a Last Survivor tells Fred Harris’s many stories: some serious, some funny, and all true. Each story forms a part of this report of a last survivor, a long look back over ninety-three years and counting of a rich life of public service and personal commitment.
Reviews
“Fred Harris’s life and legacy are a timely reminder of what service to country really means. His efforts on behalf of working and marginalized people everywhere, his devotion to democracy, and his courage and compassion in service to a troubled nation give me hope that with ‘radical optimism’ we will see our way through our current crisis.”—Timothy B. Krebs, author of Understanding Urban Politics: Institutions, Representation, and Policies
“Fred Harris’s life and legacy are a timely reminder of what service to country really means. His efforts on behalf of working and marginalized people everywhere, his devotion to democracy, and his courage and compassion in service to a troubled nation give me hope that with ‘radical optimism’ we will see our way through our current crisis.”—Timothy B. Krebs, author of Understanding Urban Politics: Institutions, Representation, and Policies
“Like a twentieth-century version of Alexander Hamilton, Senator Fred Harris was consistently ‘in the room where it happens.’ Senator Harris brings us along for a ride that includes his cross-country tours of the Kerner Commission, the smoke-filled rooms of the 1968 Democratic National Convention, intimate dinners with his best friend and colleague Senator Robert F. Kennedy, negotiations to create the groundbreaking McGovern Commission, and colorful conversations with President Lyndon Johnson.”—Michael S. Rocca, professor of political science, University of New Mexico
