Additional information
by Ernest Dumas (Author)
Beginning with the defeat of Governor Francis Cherry by Orval Faubus, the son of a hillbilly socialist, at the end of the Joseph McCarthy era, Dumas traces the development of a modern political cast that eventually produced Arkansas's first president of the United States--also exploring what brought about the second-ever impeachment of an American president.
Journalist Ernest Dumas has written about politics for more than sixty years, since 1954, the year that the stolid Cherry fell to Faubus. The book is also a political memoir that describes not only Dumas's education in the ways of politicians but also the politicians' own education and miseducation in how to win voters and then how to get things done. Through the eyes of a journalist, this book collects the mostly untold stories, often deeply personal, that reveal the inner struggles and sometimes the tribulations of the state's leaders--Cherry, Faubus, Winthrop Rockefeller, Dale Bumpers, David Pryor, John McClellan, J. William Fulbright, Bill Clinton, Jim Guy Tucker, and others.
Author Biography
Ernest Dumas started reporting for the El Dorado Daily News and Evening Times in 1954. For thirty-two years, he was a political and state government reporter and an associate editor, editorial writer, and columnist for the Arkansas Gazette, until it closed in 1991. He continues to write for a number of state and national journals, including the Arkansas Times. He is an author or collaborator on several books, including The Clintons of Arkansas, Waiting for the Cemetery Vote, and Dearest Letty.
