About the Author

Ernest F. ""Fritz"" Hollings has enjoyed a remarkable career in public service as a South Carolina legislator (1949-1954), Lieutenant Governor (1955-1959), Governor (1959-1963), U.S. Senator (1966-2005), and U.S. presidential candidate (1983-1984). A visionary workhorse, Hollings has focused throughout his career on putting government on a sound financial basis and promoting economic development to create opportunities. He is a widely respected policy expert on the budget, telecommunications, the environment, defense, trade, and space. Kirk Victor covers the U.S. Senate for the National Journal and was part of a reporting team that won a National Headliner Award in 2005 for coverage of Congress. A native of Savannah, Georgia, Victor has a law degree from the Antioch School of Law and an M.A. degree in journalism from Columbia University.

Reviews

Making Government Work is part autobiography, part political history, and part guidance on how Hollings, a former South Carolina governor who served six terms in the U.S. Senate speaking his mind, believes the nation can solve its problems.-- "Greenville (S.C.) News"

A thorough memoir of former U.S. Senator Hollings's five decades of public service. A sound account of a half-century's functioning of the legislature.-- "Kirkus Reviews"

Fritz Hollings is working on a government reform project he can only conduct from the outside--getting the money out of politics and the politics back into Congress.... He outlines his plans for getting Washington off the money mill in Making Government Work.-- "Bill Moyers Journal"

Hollings had a reputation for speaking his mind during his many years in office, and he continues to be familiarly forthright in his political memoir.-- "Charleston (S.C.) Post & Courier"

Hollings makes it clear in Making Government Work that he--perhaps more than any twentieth-century South Carolina political figure--understands the power and possibility of government.-- "Columbia (S.C.) State"

In a gripping examination of the severe crisis confronting the United States, Hollings taps his more than one-half century of public service and presents this user's guide to democracy.-- "Living in South Carolina"

With razor-sharp wit and insight, former South Carolina Governor and U.S. Senator Ernest Hollings has produced a rare species of political memoir that stresses deal-making, compromises, and genuine bipartisanship to produce effective leadership and legislation in government.-- "G: The Magazine of Greenville (S.C.)"