Senator Sam Ervin, Last of the Founding Fathers - by Karl E Campbell (Paperback)

About the Book

Senator Sam Ervin, Last of the Founding Fathers

Book Synopsis

Many Americans remember Senator Sam Ervin (1896-1985) as the affable, Bible-quoting, old country lawyer who chaired the Senate Watergate hearings in 1973. Ervin's stories from down home in North Carolina, his reciting literary passages ranging from Shakespeare to Aesop's fables, and his earnest lectures in defense of civil liberties and constitutional government contributed to the downfall of President Nixon and earned Senator Ervin a reputation as "the last of the founding fathers."
Yet for most of his twenty years in the Senate, Ervin applied these same rhetorical devices to a very different purpose. Between 1954 and 1974, he was Jim Crow's most talented legal defender as the South's constitutional expert during the congressional debates on civil rights. The paradox of the senator's opposition to civil rights and defense of civil liberties lies at the heart of this biography of Sam Ervin.

Drawing on newly opened archival material, Karl Campbell illuminates the character of the man and the historical forces that shaped him. The senator's distrust of centralized power, Campbell argues, helps explain his ironic reputation as a foe of civil rights and a champion of civil liberties. Campbell demonstrates that the Watergate scandal represented the culmination of an escalating series of clashes between the imperial presidency of Richard Nixon and a congressional counterattack led by Senator Ervin. The issue central to that struggle, as well as to many of the other crusades in Ervin's life, remains a key question of the American experience today -- how to exercise legitimate government power while protecting essential individual freedoms.

Review Quotes

"A persuasive and fresh perspective on southern and North Carolina politics. . . . Well organized and crisply written... the most important book on Sam Ervin." -- North Carolina Historical Review

"A welcome addition to the understanding of Ervin's southern mind. . . . Highly recommended." -- CHOICE

"Campbell covers . . . Ervin's career admirably." -- Metrobooks

"Campbell succeeds splendidly in threading the historical needle. . . . A sophisticated, clear-eyed and evenhanded biography . . . that is likely to stand the test of time as the best work on one of North Carolina's most famous sons. . . . Adds immeasurably to our understanding of the state and its politics." -- The News and Observer

"Campbell's gripping biography of Ervin uncovers the road to Watergate from his Senate appointment in 1954 and explains how this Bible-quoting country lawyer from North Carolina became the leading defender of civil liberties in the Senate." -- Our State

"Contributes to the growing scholarship on the southern white response to the civil rights era. . . . [An] excellent study." -- Journal of American History

"Excellent. . . . Highly recommend[ed]. . . . Extensively researched and documented, gracefully written, and includes a variety of photographs and illustrations." -- Winston-Salem Journal

"In a biography of Ervin . . . Karl Campbell wrestles with [many] questions as he charts Ervin's life from his birth in Morganton to its climax in 1973-74 when he became America's folk hero as chair of the Senate Watergate hearings. . . . Campbell's compact description of Ervin's pre-Senate life is interesting and entertaining." -- Chapel Hill News

"Karl E. Campbell . . . has written a biography about the late Ervin so that a new generation of people can be introduced to 'Senator Sam.' " -- Appalachian State University News

"The book is an evenhanded look at 'a man full of paradoxes.' " -- Carolina Alumni Review