Joseph Swidler (1907-1997) was one of the last New Dealers, part of
a generation of talented professionals--including Harry Hopkins,
Harold Ickes, and Morris Cohen--who devoted their energies to
serving public, not private interests. In a career spanning six
decades, he helped craft and administer the nation's energy policy
while witnessing most of the signal events of the modern age: the
Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War, and America's
emergence as a superpower. Swidler's memoir is filled with insights
on this transformative period of U.S. history and includes
anecdotes about key historical figures, among them David E.
Lilienthal, Harold Ickes, Lyndon B. Johnson, John F. Kennedy, and
Nelson Rockefeller.
In 1933, Swidler, a young Chicago attorney, signed onto the
Roosevelt administration's efforts to implement New Deal economic
reforms. As general counsel to the Tennessee Valley Authority, he
did much to define the basic parameters of power regulation in the
United States. His twenty-five years at the TVA were interrupted by
World War II service in the Department of Justice, the War
Production Board, and the Navy.
Asked by President Kennedy in 1961 to chair the Federal Power
Commission (now the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission), Swidler,
in just four years, transformed that moribund and inefficient
agency into one of the best of the U.S. regulatory commissions.
Later, he presided over a similar turnaround during his tenure as
Chairman of the New York State Public Service Commission.
Between his lengthy stints in government service, Swidler practiced
law privately in Nashville and Washington, D.C. But it was as a
public servant that he had the most impact, using his sharp
intellect and get-it-done style to construct a national energy and
utility policy that considered the needs of the consumer as well as
those of the producer--a balancing act that is especially relevant
in the current climate of energy shortages.
The Editor: A. Scott Henderson, assistant professor of education at
Furman University, is author of Housing and the Democratic Ideal:
The Life and Thought of Charles Abrams.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
