Born, raised, and retired in Mississippi, Lucy Somerville Howorth (1895--1997) was a champion for the rights of women long before feminism emerged as a widely recognized movement. As told by Dorothy S. Shawhan and Martha H. Swain, hers is a remarkable life story-from a small-town upbringing to a career as an attorney, an activist, and the last of a generation of New Deal women in Washington, D.C. She held a presidential appointment under every chief executive from Franklin Roosevelt to John Kennedy.

Howorth was a fervent believer in the power of organizations to bring about change, and she became known for her leadership qualities, acumen, and quick appraisal of social problems, particularly as they affected women. Shawhan and Swain point out that her winsome personality, small stature, and delightful sense of humor also aided her as a female aspiring in a man's world. In 1931 she was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives and, after campaigning for Roosevelt, was rewarded by the new president with a federal appointment. She served in a number of subsequent roles, rising to become general counsel of the War Claims Commission, at that time the highest legal position in an executive commission ever filled by a woman.

Howorth worked relentlessly for the advancement of women, especially through the American Association for University Women and the National Federation of Business and Professional Women. She lobbied for equality in the workplace, helping to effect significant advances in government and the professions. In 1944, at the request of Eleanor Roosevelt, Howorth delivered the keynote speech at the White House Conference on Women in Postwar Policy-Making, the most memorable of her many public addresses.

This first-ever biography of Howorth bestows long-overdue recognition of her many notable achievements and illuminates the activism of women in the decades often considered to be the doldrums of the women's movement.

Byron Patton "Pat" Harrison was chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance during the New Deal, and under his tutelage the committee handled many of the major measures of the decade. Harrison brought to his post enormous influence based not only upon congressional longevity dating from his entry into the House of Representatives in 1911 and the Senate in 1919 but also upon a happy combination of personal qualities that made him perhaps the most popular man in the Senate during his time.Although never the author of any major legislation, Harrison was a master tactician and broker for the ideas of others. Defeated by one vote in 1937 in a contest with Alben W. Barkley for the position of majority leader, the Mississippi senator was named President Pro Tempore in January 1941, six months before his death.

Harrison was an ardent supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt during the first years of the New Deal. By 1935 the senator had become, as "Fortune" magazine reported, "a New Deal wheelhorse . . . suspicious of his load." One of the major purposes of this study is to explain how Harrison's basic conservatism, subdued by the exigencies of total depression, became manifest during the latter years of the decade.

His reservations, which appeared in the open at the time of the wealth tax of 1935, grew out of his basic belief that revenue bills should be written for revenue only. After he became disenchanted with the later New Deal's emphasis upon deficit spending and social control programs, disillusioned by the treatment accorded him by the President, and convinced that the economic emergency was over, Harrison's attitudinal modifications were obvious. Subsequently his refusal to support the administration, his open leadership of the Finance Committee in diminishing the effect of administrative measures, and his affection for senators cast off by the President all began to indicate that the Mississippian was ready to match his Senate performance with the beliefs that he probably had always held. The Harrison-Roosevelt estrangement did not end until the two agreed upon the need for preparedness in 1940.

This study focuses to a lesser extent upon Pat Harrison's relationships with major New Deal figures. Considerable attention is also devoted to his difficulties with his colleague Theodore G. Bilbo and his easier associations with other Mississippi officials. Finally, this work sheds some light upon the nature of depression and recovery in Mississippi and the political vagaries of the state during this decade. This book is based primarily upon public documents, newspaper accounts, and a number of manuscript collections. Other important sources are private interviews of the author with contemporaries of Harrison and the interviews found in the Columbia Oral History Collection.

Martha H. Swain is Professor Emerita at Mississippi State University.

Ellen S. Woodward (1887-1971) was touted as Roosevelt's second most powerful woman appointee. Among American women only Eleanor Roosevelt and Labor Department Secretary Frances Perkins could claim more elevated roles in the circle of FDR's administration.

This long overdue biography of such a remarkable leader traces Woodward's odyssey from the parlors of her Mississippi clubwomen associates to a position as director of women's work relief under three successive New Deal agencies from 1933 to 1938.

Swain depicts Woodward in the vital roles she took in alleviating the working woman's plight. Particularly rich is Swain's account of Woodward's attempts to remain vital in policymaking during the Truman era, when Eleanor Roosevelt was no longer the central figure of the women's coterie.

Without minimizing the limitations of the programs under Woodward's aegis, Swain gives ample attention to the operation and internal dynamics of her ambitious projects. Though some of Woodward's project proved to be disappointing, others became rich legacies for programs in later administrations.