La Follette’s Autobiography

A Personal Narrative of Political Experiences

Robert M. La Follette

• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN:
  9780299297138
• Print ISBN:
  9780299297145
• Subtopic: Political Biographies

Written in lucid, vigorous prose, La Follette's Autobiography is the famous Wisconsin senator's own account of his political life and philosophy. Both memoir and a history of the Progressive cause in the United States, it charts La Follette's formative years in politics, his attempts to abolish entrenched, ruthless state and corporate influences, and his embattled efforts to advance Progressive policies as Wisconsin governor and U.S. senator. With a new foreword by Matthew Rothschild, editor of The Progressive—the magazine that La Follette himself founded—the Autobiography remains a powerful reminder of the legacies of Progressivism and reform and the enduring voice of the man who fought for them.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Foreword, Matthew Rothschild
• Introduction
• Chapter 1. Political Beginnings
• Chapter 2. In the House of Representatives
• Chapter 3. The Reed Congress and the New National Issues
• Chapter 4. The Crucial Period of My Public Life
• Chapter 5. Six Years' Struggle with the Wisconsin Bosses
• Chapter 6. My First Term as Governor and the Problems I Had to Meet
• Chapter 7. How We Passed the Railroad Taxation Laws
• Chapter 8. Progressive Government Produces Business Prosperity: What Was Accomplished in Wisconsin
• Chapter 9. Alone in the Senate: Experiences with Roosevelt: Railroad Rate Legislation
• Chapter 10. Reinforcements: A National Progressive Movement
• Chapter 11. Why I Became a Candidate for the Presidency - Taft's Unavailability - A Complete History of Roosevelt's Course after His Return from Africa - Formation of the Organized Progressive Movement - Pressure for a Real Progressive Candidate
• Chapter 12. The True History of the Campaign of 1912 for the Republication Nomination to the Presidency
• Chapter 13. Why I Continued as a Candidate - Roosevent never a Progressive - His Record
• Appendix: Speech of Robert M. La Follette Delivered at the Annual Banquet of the Periodical Publishers' Association Philadelphia, February 2, 1912
• Index