Ralph W. Yarborough: The People's Senator

In Ralph W. Yarborough: The People's Senator, University of Texas historian Patrick Cox explores just what the Texas congressman (1903-1996) did to earn that honorable nickname. From his legal and judicial career in the 1930s and his service in WWII to his failed gubernatorial campaigns and his successful years in the U.S. Senate, Yarborough was, Cox writes, ""a man of the people who fought for the people."" A champion of civil rights, education, historical preservation and health care, Yarborough was a defiant, dedicated liberal in the face of conservative Southern politics, and inspired a ""living legacy of Texas officeholders"" to emulate him. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy contributes a foreword. Illus.