John William McCormack

Garrison Nelson is the Elliott A. Brown Professor of Law, Politics, and Political Behavior at the University of Vermont, USA. He is the author of more than 150 articles and professional papers on national politics focusing on the US Congress and elections in Vermont. He is an editor of the seven-volume Committees in the U.S. Congress, 1789-2010 (1993-2010) and the co-author of the Austin-Boston Connection: Five Decades of House Democratic Leadership, 1937-1989 (2009).

• 1 November 27, 1963: The Troubling Public Introduction 2 Irish Emigration and the Cauldron of Yankee Boston3 The Reinvention of John McCormack4 The Ascent: Yankee Mentors, Irish Gatekeepers, and Harriet 5 From Beacon Hill to Capitol Hill6 The 1928-33 Game Change7 The New Deal and a National Stage8 The Problematic Landslide: Court-Packing and Purges9 FDR’s Third Term, the Austin-Boston Connection, and the Brink of War 10 War Transforms the Nation11 FDR’s Death and the Politics of Post-war America12 The Unhealed Early Wounds: McCormack and Kennedy in the House13 A Republican Congress, a Vice Presidential Bid and the Four-Way Election of 194814 The Lost Peace, Korea and Anti-Communism15 Rabbi John Rescues Kennedy and a Transformed Delegation16 Ike’s Presidency, John’s Partial Eclipse and the Anti-Communism Crusade Fizzles17 Political Positioning, 1956-6018 Transitions, 1960-6119 The Tenuous Partnership, 196220 The Fateful Year of 196321 A Legislative Legacy Built Upon a Tragedy 22 The Unraveling, 1967-6823 It’s Time, Mr. Speaker Epilogue

Garrison Nelson’s “John William McCormack’’ is a brilliant portrait not only of Boston’s Forgotten Man but also of the place that spawned him (the Irish enclaves of Boston) and of the era he occupied (from the New Deal to the Great Society). It shimmers with gems of historical insight … and with breathtaking mastery of the local landscape, political and physical.