Description
Frances McGovern gives an entertaining account of her life and the colorful people she knew in local, state, and national politics, from her start as a young lawyer in 1949 through 1964 when she quit politics after an unsuccessful run for Congress. An insightful memoir from an era when the industrial Midwest still dominated American politics and men dominated the industrial Midwest, McGovern illustrates just how Fun, Cheap, and Easy local politics could be.
Go with her to covered dish suppers, picnics, and church basements, to the Ohio House of Representatives where she served three terms, the Ohio Public Utilities Commission, and two of the century’s most exciting Democratic National Conventions. Join her as she takes the Kennedy women through Ohio in 1960. Share her rides with Hubert Humphrey in Barberton and President Johnson in Akron, and her tea party for Lady Bird at the old Mayflower Hotel. Best of all, enjoy her stories of political figures of both parties—a refreshing behind the scenes look at politics on a local and state level.
Fun, Cheap, and Easy is a wonderful account of Midwestern grass roots politics when the New Deal party system was in full flower. Part pioneer and part exemplar of her era, Frances McGovern’s memoir tells us much about what American democracy was—and ought to be. Wise, generous and well-written, this gem of a book deserves wide readership.
—John C. Green, Director, Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics
