Huey Long

Summary

T. Harry Williams gives a sweeping account of Huey Long, the populist governor and senator who dominated Louisiana politics in the 1920s and 1930s. Drawing on hundreds of interviews with people who knew Long, the book traces his rise from rural poverty to near absolute power and the national ambitions cut short by his assassination. Williams presents a complex figure who delivered roads, schools, and services while building a machine that strained the limits of democracy.