John A. Lawrence, "The Class of '74"

John A. Lawrence discusses his book, "The Class of '74", at Politics and Prose on 3/3/18.

Also known as the “Watergate class,” the freshmen legislators elected to Congress in 1974 in the wake of Nixon’s resignation were overwhelmingly Democratic. While Majority Leader Tip O’Neill recalled them as “a highly sophisticated and talented group” that arrived with “a million grievances,” they’ve been largely remembered as naïve and idealistic. Lawrence, who worked in the House for nearly forty years, eight of them as chief of staff to former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, draws on his deep experience of the institution to show that these seventy-six Democratic freshman were serious reformers. Including skilled politicians such as Norman Mineta, Les AuCoin, Harold Ford, and Gladys Noon Spellman, the class initiated changes that empowered progressive Democrats but also fomented increasingly bitter battles between liberals and conservatives, laying the ground for today’s deeply divisive partisan politics.

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Produced by Tom Warren