The Cost of Courage

📖 The Scoop

Carl Elliott has lived the American dream and the American nightmare. His courage, tenacity, and vision carried him from the hills of northwest Alabama to the United States House of Representatives, where he served eight distinguished terms--only to see his career destroyed by the greatest political chameleon of our time, George Wallace, in a vicious battle of the politics of race and segregation. Born in a log cabin on a tenant farm in 1913, Carl Elliott worked his way through the University of Alabama during the Depression, and was elected to Congress in 1948. With a no-nonsense philosophy of fairness and equal opportunity, he established himself as one of the most effective members of the House of Representatives during the 1950s. He was a progressive Democrat in an era when segregationists dominated southern statehouses. Elliott fought for his constituents, the dirt farmers and coal miners he grew up with and who sent him to Congress. He was the instrumental force in passing the National Defense Education Act of 1958, which has provided loans enabling more than twenty million Americans to attend college, and he became a member of the prestigious House Rules Committee during the Kennedy administration. Carl Elliott's effectiveness made him the target of the racist reactionaries who rose to power in the South in the late 1950s and early 1960s--most notably George Wallace. His refusal to join the Wallace forces, and his stand against them in the 1966 gubernatorial race, ruined him professionally (he never returned to elected office) and financially (he cashed in his congressional pension to help finance his campaign for governor). Human and heartfelt, laced with humor and wry wisdom, The Cost of Courage is the story of a decent, steadfast man who worked with some of the most important political names of this century--Truman, Eisenhower, Nixon, Kennedy, Rayburn. It is the story of an individual making his way across a stage as large as America, to encounter some of the most complex challenges that could face not only a politician, but a man. It is the moving story of a congressman who suffered devastating defeat in the bold defense of a just cause, and who triumphed by persevering with his dignity and integrity intact.

Genre: Biography & Autobiography / General (fancy, right?)