As a correspondent for Newsweek, as well as a number of Southern dailies, Stephen Lesher covered Wallace from the time of the Montgomery boycott to the end of his political career. He is the author of A Coronary Event and Media Unbound, among other books.
In this substantial biography, written with Wallace's cooperation, Lesher's portrayal of the four-term Alabama governor as ``the dominant and most important issue maker of his time,'' shifting national campaign rhetoric to the right, is convincing, if overstated. The author, a former Newsweek correspondent, traces the origins and development of Wallace's powers of hucksterism and his need for an audience, laying out his ``extraordinary racial schizophrenia'': because of his political ambition, Wallace allowed his populist support for bills that often benefited blacks to be overshadowed by his racist political positioning. Thus Lesher recounts the twists and turns of Wallace's many campaigns, including his epochal third-party presidential bid in 1968 and his defense of segregation. Lesher points out that Wallace's populism, unlike that of Reaganite Republicans, took on the rich, and tells how Wallace, crippled in a 1972 assassination attempt, recovered a humanity that led him to make public apologies for his racism. Though this book is an essential resource and Lesher writes well, readers seeking an account of Wallace's strange magnetism should also consult Marshall Frady's 1972 minibiography, Wallace. (Mar.)
Former Alabama governor and presidential candidate George Wallace is remembered primarily for his opposition to racial integration in the 1960s and 1970s. Journalist Lesher's biography provides ample documentation, if any is needed, that Wallace encouraged racism and benefited from it in his campaigns. However, Lesher also argues that Wallace recognized and tapped a strain of populist sentiment in American politics that later politicians as different as Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton successfully used to further their own political careers. Moreover, he asserts that ``every successful presidential campaign from 1968 through 1992 was founded on popular issues and rhetoric first identified and articulated by Wallace.'' This may be an exaggeration, but it is true that many contemporary politicians have more in common with Wallace than they would be comfortable acknowledging. The most comprehensive biography available of Wallace; highly recommended for academic libraries.-- Thomas H. Ferrell, Univ. of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette
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