Let the People In : : The Life and Times of Ann Richards / / Jan Reid.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Texas Press eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Reid, Jan,
• Place / Publishing House: Austin : : University of Texas Press, , [2021]; ©2012
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (495 p.)

When Ann Richards delivered the keynote of the 1988 Democratic National Convention and mocked President George H. W. Bush—“Poor George, he can’t help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth”—she instantly became a media celebrity and triggered a rivalry that would alter the course of American history. In 1990, Richards won the governorship of Texas, upsetting the GOP’s colorful rancher and oilman Clayton Williams. The first ardent feminist elected to high office in America, she opened up public service to women, blacks, Hispanics, Asian Americans, gays, and the disabled. Her progressive achievements and the force of her personality created a lasting legacy that far transcends her rise and fall as governor of Texas. In Let the People In, Jan Reid draws on his long friendship with Richards, interviews with her family and many of her closest associates, her unpublished correspondence with longtime companion Bud Shrake, and extensive research to tell a very personal, human story of Ann Richards’s remarkable rise to power as a liberal Democrat in a conservative Republican state. Reid traces the whole arc of Richards’s life, beginning with her youth in Waco, her marriage to attorney David Richards, her frustration and boredom with being a young housewife and mother in Dallas, and her shocking encounters with Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter. He follows Richards to Austin and the wild 1970s scene and describes her painful but successful struggle against alcoholism. He tells the full, inside story of Richards’s rise from county office and the state treasurer’s office to the governorship, where she championed gun control, prison reform, environmental protection, and school finance reform, and he explains why she lost her reelection bid to George W. Bush, which evened his family’s score and launched him toward the presidency. Reid describes Richards’s final years as a world traveler, lobbyist, public speaker, and mentor and inspiration to office holders, including Hillary Clinton. His nuanced portrait reveals a complex woman who battled her own frailties and a good-old-boy establishment to claim a place on the national political stage and prove “what can happen in government if we simply open the doors and let the people in.”

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Prologue. Glimpses -- PART ONE: GARDENS OF LIGHT -- Chapter 1 Waco -- Chapter 2 New Frontiers -- Chapter 3 Lovers Lane -- Chapter 4 Mad Dogs and First Fridays -- Chapter 5 The Hanukkah Chicken -- Part two Superwoman’s Chair -- Chapter 6 Problem Lady -- Chapter 7 Landslides -- Chapter 8 Raw Deals -- Chapter 9 Capsized -- Chapter 10 The Class of ’82 -- Chapter 11 Raise Money and Wait -- Chapter 12 Cheap Help -- Part three Only in Texas -- Chapter 13 Poker Faces -- Chapter 14 The Speech -- Chapter 15 Dispatches -- Chapter 16 Backyard Brawl -- Chapter 17 Answer the Question -- Chapter 18 Bustin’ Rocks -- Chapter 19 The Rodeo -- Part four The Parabola -- Chapter 20 The New Texas -- Chapter 21 Fast Start -- Chapter 22 Ethicists -- Chapter 23 Odd Couples -- Chapter 24 Favorables -- Chapter 25 White Hot -- Chapter 26 Heartaches by the Number -- Chapter 27 Troubles by the Score -- Chapter 28 Sass -- Chapter 29 Collision Course -- Chapter 30 Queen Bee -- Epilogue Passages -- Notes -- Photo Credits -- Index