Review by Choice Review
Best remembered for his "Jeopardy question" moment--several weeks in the white-hot spotlight in 1972--Thomas Eagleton here receives due attention for his distinguished political career. Talented and hard driving, Eagleton climbed the political ladder quickly, winning a seat in the US Senate from Missouri before the age of 40. Three years later, he was the Democratic Party's nominee for vice-president, a position he was forced to abandon after revelations about his history of depression and electroshock treatments. Giglio (emer., Missouri State Univ.) does not give Eagleton a free pass about his behavior during this episode or in other instances in which he believes that Eagleton did not live up to his ideals. Yet Call Me Tom highlights Eagleton's strengths--in particular, his success in advancing progressive legislation, often working in concert with moderates across the political aisle. He was also a consistent, albeit not always successful, advocate for congressional checks on presidential war powers. If Eagleton was never quite the Senate lion that Giglio makes him out to be, he nonetheless emerges in this well-wrought biography as both a formidable and a likable public servant. Summing Up: Recommended. College and university collections. M. J. Birkner Gettysburg College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
