Nicholas Longworth

Of all the most significant Speakers of the House, the one that has received the least attention from biographers is Nicholas Longworth. That omission has now been corrected by Donald C. Bacon and Anthony M. Champagne’s splendid new book, Nicholas Longworth: The Aristocrat Speaker. It presents not only Longworth’s life but also a portrait of a period of American Politics quite unlike the present—when partisan battle lines were not so rigid and personal ties moderated polarization. A gap in the Congress literature has been filled in brilliantly.

-- Ross K. Baker, Rutgers University

Ohio aristocrat, product of a party machine, and son-in-law to President Theodore Roosevelt, Nicholas Longworth weathered his own personal flaws and complex family dynamics as well as a Republican party politics fraught with divisions to emerge as a foremost political figure of the early twentieth century. In this masterfully written biography, Bacon and Champagne bring to life the story of one of the most influential and compelling Speakers in the history of the U.S. House.

-- Douglas B. Harris, Loyola University Mary