White, Richard D., Jr. 1945-

PERSONAL:

Born 1945.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Baton Rouge, LA. Office—Department of Public Administration, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, professor of public administration.

WRITINGS:

Roosevelt the Reformer: Theodore Roosevelt As Civil Service Commissioner, 1889-1895, University of Alabama Press (Tuscaloosa, AL), 2003.

Kingfish: The Reign of Huey P. Long, Random House (New York, NY), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

In Roosevelt the Reformer: Theodore Roosevelt As Civil Service Commissioner, 1889-1895, Richard D. White, Jr., chronicles Roosevelt's career as civil service commissioner under Presidents Benjamin Harrison and Grover Cleveland. Roosevelt was thirty-one years old when he accepted the position after failing, although aided by Henry Cabot Lodge and others, to secure the position of assistant secretary of state. The three-person Civil Service Commission was created through the Pendleton Act in 1883. Meant to counter political corruption, the commission under Roosevelt fought against patronage practices that awarded jobs to friends of political figures, businessmen, and financiers, and the solicitation from federal employees of political contributions. Roosevelt's perseverance for reform earned him many admirers and was instrumental to his advancement in politics. Alan Lessoff wrote in the Presidential Studies Quarterly: "This clear, engaging book reminds one that even less dramatic periods of Theodore Roosevelt's life offered a show worth witnessing."

White studied another fascinating political figure in Kingfish: The Reign of Huey P. Long. The biography contains a chapter for each year, from 1927 to 1935, that Long ruled Louisiana politics, first as governor and then as a U.S. senator. Long, who was assassinated in the Louisiana capitol building while senator, and who is the subject of Robert Penn Warren's novel All the King's Men, was one of the most loved and hated American politicians, and was despised by Theodore Roosevelt. While the dictatorial and ruthless Long destroyed his enemies, he also helped the poor and uneducated masses by providing textbooks, roads, and hospitals. Booklist reviewer Brad Hooper wrote that "White's careful, straightforward, and sound picture of this American original will do nothing less than disturb and fascinate readers."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, March 1, 2006, Brad Hooper, review of Kingfish: The Reign of Huey P. Long, p. 59.

Economist, April 22, 2006, review of Kingfish, p. 80.

Library Journal, March 15, 2006, William D. Pederson, review of Kingfish, p. 80.

New Yorker, June 12, 2006, Elizabeth Kolbert, review of Kingfish, p. 146.

Presidential Studies Quarterly, March, 2005, Alan Lessoff, review of Roosevelt the Reformer: Theodore Roosevelt As Civil Service Commissioner, 1889-1895, p. 204.

Publishers Weekly, February 13, 2006, review of Kingfish, p. 75.

Washington Post Book World, June 11, 2006, Michael Kazin, review of Kingfish, p. 3.*