Authoritarianism and Class in American Political Fiction

This book analyzes what many critics consider to be the three best examples of modern American political fiction-Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men, Edwin O'Connor's The Last Hurrah, and Billy Lee Brammer's The Gay Place-to address a specific problem in American governance: how the intense competition for power among elite factions often results in their ignoring major groups of their constituents, thereby providing political bosses with a rationale to seize authoritarian control of the government in the name of constituent groups who feel ignored or neglected, promising them more democratic rule, but in the process, excluding other groups, so that the bosses themselves become elitist, ruling only for the sake of some constituents and not others.

David Smit is Professor Emeritus of English at Kansas State University, where he taught for twenty-nine years and was director of the Expository Writing Program for two five-year terms. His special interests are writing theory, Henry James, modern drama, and post-war American literature and culture, especially the political fiction of the period.

Introduction Chapter 1: Class, Elite Pluralism, and Political Bosses Part I Chapter 2: Robert Penn Warren and Huey Long's Louisiana: 1928-32 Chapter 3: A Class Analysis of All the King's Men Part II Chapter 4: Edwin O'Connor and James Michael Curley's Boston: 1914-50 Chapter 5: A Class Analysis of The Last Hurrah Part III Chapter 6: Billie Lee Brammer and Lyndon Johnson's Texas in the1950s Chapter 7: A Class Analysis of The Gay Place Conclusion