Who is battling bob

Unger is assistant professor of history at Santa Clara University. For more information about Nancy C. Unger, visit the Author Page. Fighting Bob La Follette effectively introduces La Follette to a new audience and reminds readers of the complexity of the man and his politics.

Unger's narrative is riveting. Carefully documented, sensitive, and readable biography. For nearly ten years, La Follette traveled around the state and spoke out against crooked politicians, powerful lumber barons and the railroad interests that dominated his own party.

Elected governor in , La Follette pledged to institute his own sweeping political reforms. Until that time, candidates listed on ballots were selected by party leaders in private caucuses. Drawing on the ideas of other reformers, La Follette pushed the legislature to institute direct primary elections to let voters choose their own candidates. He supported measures that doubled the taxes on railroads, broke up monopolies, preserved the state's forests, protected workers' rights, defended small farmers and regulated lobbying to end patronage politics.

La Follette worked closely with professors from the University of Wisconsin to help the state become "a laboratory of democracy. Senate in , La Follette had become a national figure. Formal studio portrait of Belle Case La Follette wearing a black lace dress. This photograph was taken about , the year in which her husband, Robert M. La Follette, Sr. It is probably a dress that she wore to official parties and gatherings in the capital. In Washington, La Follette pushed for the same kinds of reforms he had promoted in Wisconsin.

He often spoke at length on the corruption of government and the abuse of industrial workers. The author argues that La Follette's personal strengths and weaknesses date to his earliest childhood beginnings in Primrose, Wisconsin.

What appear to be political reversals and inconsistencies are actually quite consistent in view of La Follette's emotional needs" p. In response to his mother's directives to emulate and please his dead father by doing "right", La Follette spent his entire life seeking approval and acceptance that manifested itself politically as "righteous perfection" p.

Unger suggests that it was La Follette's self-righteousness that strained his relationship with Theodore Roosevelt, "a man who had achieved all that La Follette coveted: power, mass love, approval, and a stable and high sense of self-esteem" p. Shared "messianic self-perceptions" also made long-term cooperation between La Follette and Woodrow Wilson impossible p. Psychological drives affected La Follette's relationship with members of his immediate family.

He depended on the advice and counsel of his wife, Belle. She set specific goals for him and offered the approval that "assured him of his significance and importance" p. Ironically, La Follette's own psychological demons affected his children, especially his oldest son, Bobbie.

All the children were subject to incredibly high parental expectations and a strong degree of parental domination. Moreover, La Follette's frequent illnesses were tied up in this dynamic as well. While ill, La Follette could relax his desperate attempts to be all-knowing, all-powerful, all 'right'" p. Illness became, for La Follette, an escape from anxiety and depression. In the end, it was the psychological that dictated the political. His self-righteousness often prevented him from cooperating even with those who shared his views.

His refusal to compromise alienated many and repeatedly limited his political effectiveness. But that same self-righteousness drove him to an impressive list of accomplishments and to a place in the political culture as an icon. Citation: Steven L.