{"product_id":"the-dean-the-best-seat-in-the-house-isbn-9780062571991","title":"The Dean: The Best Seat in the House","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJohn David Dingell, the longest serving United States’ Congressman in history, and one of the House's most powerful chairmen, offers a unique, unforgettable, and refreshingly candid behind-the-scenes account of government and politics over the past eighty years.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDemocrat John David Dingell served in the U.S. House of Representatives for fifty-nine consecutive years, from December 13, 1955 to January 3, 2015—the longest tenure of anyone in Congressional history. The son of a Congressman, Dingell worked in his father’s office from childhood and became a house page in 1938, when he was just eleven years old. Retiring from Congress at eighty-nine, he has witnessed some of the most significant events that have shaped our nation and the world. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eThe Dean\u003c\/em\u003e, Dingell looks back at his life at the center of American government and considers the currents that have reshaped our Congress and America itself, from his childhood memories of wartime Washington during the FDR administration, through the Reagan Revolution, to the election of the first black president, Barack Obama. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRife with a wisdom that literally only Dingell can possess, \u003cem\u003eThe Dean\u003c\/em\u003e is the inspiring story of some of the greatest congressional achievements, of which Dingell was an integral part, and of the tough fights that made them possible. Dingell offers a persuasive defense for government, explaining how it once worked honorably and well—in defeating Hitler, sending us to the moon, ending segregation, and providing for the common good of all our citizens. He argues that to secure our future and continue our progress, we must work together once again—lessons desperately needed today.\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA candid memoir of the past eighty years in American politics, as told by the longest-serving congressman in history\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCongressman John D. Dingell first came to Washington, DC, in 1933 at the age of six, when his father was elected to the Congress, and became a House page boy at eleven. Dingell has devoted his entire life to public service and has witnessed and helped shape most of the important political events that profoundly changed America over the last nine decades. Rife with wisdom born of unparalleled experience and filled with the caustic candor that has made him a living legend on “the Twitter Machine,” \u003cem\u003eThe Dean\u003c\/em\u003e is the inside story of the greatest legislative achievements in modern American history and of the tough fights that made them possible. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHere Dingell looks back at his life at the center of American government and vividly describes the political currents that swirled through Congress and the nation. At the age of fifteen, Dingell was in the House Chamber on December 8, 1941, and personally heard President Roosevelt declare it “a date which will live in infamy.” Almost a quarter century later, he presided over the House when Medicare was passed and led the health care reform effort in the House of Representatives from his first term in 1955 through the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, when President Obama invited Dingell to sit at the table when the bill was signed into law. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCongressman Dingell worked closely alongside some of the most legendary names in American politics, including Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Barack Obama; Vice Presidents Hubert Humphrey and Joseph Biden; Senator Ted Kennedy; and House Speakers Sam Rayburn and John McCormack. And though he is a lifelong, proud Democrat, Dingell built lasting bipartisan friendships with Republican leaders such as Presidents Gerald Ford, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush, Secretary of State James Baker, and Senator Alan Simpson.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnd in a scathingly powerful afterword, Dingell addresses our nation’s future in the wake of an unprecedented attack on all our democratic institutions. He presents a persuasive defense of government, reminding us how it once worked honorably and well across the aisle, and offers hope for how it can do so again. By sharing his personal story as a descendant of immigrants, Dingell also reminds us of this country’s founding promise to remain a beacon of liberty to the entire world. \u003cem\u003eThe Dean\u003c\/em\u003e is essential reading for all who love this country as deeply as John D. Dingell does.\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003e“Feisty...A hard-hitting critique of a nation ‘in mortal peril.’” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Harper","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44888531697893,"sku":"NP9780062571991","price":28.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780062571991.jpg?v=1730229285","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-dean-the-best-seat-in-the-house-isbn-9780062571991","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}