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American Populist: Huey Long of Louisiana Recounts Personal Life and Political Strategy of
The Kingfish
By Andrea Marvin
Author Thomas E. Patterson’s book American Populist: Huey Long of Louisiana unravels the life of one of the most fascinating politicians of the 20th century.
Labelled the most dangerous man in America by Franklin Roosevelt and known as "The Kingfish," Huey Long was a populist hero, serving as Governor of Louisiana and later becoming a U.S. Senator in the 1930s.
He had a profound influence on the New Deal during the Great Depression and proposed the redistribution of wealth, minimum incomes, free education, and old-age and veteran pensions.
Patterson devoted years to researching and writing the book, utilizing unused personal papers of Long in the process. This provides a balanced and analytical perspective on Huey Long’s life, detailing both his political strategy and upbringing.
During an interview, Patterson highlighted the similarities between Huey Long and Donald Trump, noting their political styles. His book thus appeals to a broad audience, including political activists on both the left and right, business professionals, and those interested in the Great Depression era.
Patterson studied history in college, and his passion for the subject has stayed with him throughout his law career.
Patterson is a seasoned attorney with decades of experience practicing law. He was a Law Clerk for Illinois Supreme Court Justice William G. Clark, worked for a large Chicago law firm, and founded his own law firm, which represents businesses and entrepreneurs.
With his background in law and passion for history, Patterson tells us during an interview why he has always been fascinated by Huey Long and what we can all learn from the politician.
Briefly summarize your book, American Populist: Huey Long of Louisiana.
American Populist: Huey Long of Louisiana is about Huey Long from the cradle to the grave.
He lived 42 years and was assassinated in the State Capital that he had built in Louisiana.
He was an authentic American populist who accomplished quite a few things in a short period of time.
He was an agent of change in Louisiana and later pushed Franklin Roosevelt to adopt some of the best features of the New Deal.
He won victories, suffered defeats and embarassments, made comebacks, and faced conflicts.
It’s a rollicking story from beginning to end.
Have you always had an interest in Huey Long, or why did you choose to write about this politician?
I've been fascinated with the Kingfish since I read the T. Harry Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning biography that came out in 1969 and watched the Ken Burns documentary produced in the mid-1980s.
Afterward, books critical of Huey and Williams came out. All the King’s Men, the fictionalized story of Huey, was made into a movie starring Sean Penn.
When the financial crisis hit in 2008-09, economists and others advocated higher taxation on the wealthy to avoid excessive inequality, which was Huey’s primary contention.
He feared that the United States was becoming a modern feudalism or oligarchy. This is the same charge that Bernie Sanders and others make today.
There were also conflicts among historians that I hoped to resolve. As I got into the work, I realized that prior biographers had not extensively used Huey’s papers, which weren't discovered until after Williams’ biography was published.
His correspondence with political contemporaries, family members, and business partners, among others, permitted a fresh perspective on his early life and career.
Careful attention to these and other primary sources allowed me to resolve many conflicts among the chroniclers of the Kingfish.
Why do you think it’s important to address that part of his life?
There's a tendency in books to describe somebody as a brilliant speaker or spellbinder or what have you, someone to be admired from a distance and inaccessible. But how did these talents develop? What were the characteristics that led them to do certain things?
So, I've got different chapters on how Huey Long planned his moves, took substantial risks, disregarded reprimands, and got things done. Many other principles are interspersed throughout the book.
For example, he would say, “Always take the offensive; the defensive ain't worth a damn;” “It’s not enough to get the breaks. You gotta know how to use them.” He was adept at turning an attack from an opponent into a boomerang on the opponent.
I traced the influence of his sales career. He had spent four years on the road from Tennessee to Texas as a traveling salesman. The characteristics that made him successful as a salesman translated into politics.
He also had an extensive legal career, trying cases and maintaining a law practice, and this influenced his actions in his political career.
All of this makes him more accessible to people. It’s not a self-help book, but if I had read the book I just wrote 40 years ago, I probably would have been more successful in my own career.
What are some of the core points you hope readers gain from American Populist: Huey Long of Louisiana?
In addition to the personal characteristics that made Huey Long successful, I also analyze and apply social movement and revolution theories to Huey's rise in Louisiana: recognizing grievances; researching worthwhile solutions; mobilizing support; and confronting a big opponent.
Huey used that pattern over and over again, as have other leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr.
The pattern manifests in his campaign to reform workers compensation laws in Louisiana as a first-year, private lawyer in 1916; when he was a public service commissioner trying to get oil pipeline regulations and confronted Standard Oil; and when he was a U.S. senator in 1932 and proposed taxing the rich at a higher rate, culminating in his repudiation of his own party leader in the senate.
People thought that was political suicide. His actions didn't always work, and you can take from it what you will.
Whether you're a MoveOn activist or a Trump ideologue, you can compare and contrast what Huey did and how he did it, and improve your own advocacy.
How would you describe the similarities between Huey and Trump? What are some parallels between the politicians?
If you think President Trump is unique and his support unprecedented, you need to read this book and admit that you are wrong. Consider the similarities:
Trump's slogan, 'Make America Great Again.' Huey's slogan was ‘Every Man a King.’
Trump's demeaning nicknames for opponents: Lyin’ Ted Cruz, Little Marco, and Sleepy Joe Biden. Huey’s nicknames? Feather Duster Ransdell, Turkey Head Walmsley, and Whistle Britches Rightor.
They both represent constituencies that have been left behind by modern religious, cultural, or economic developments.
When Trump says something outrageous, he doubles down on it, which is right out of Huey's playbook. Fierce denunciation of people and a compromise that bears little relationship to the initial denunciation. Large promises and extreme promotion of whatever results are obtained.
Taking on the media. Trump exploits and dominates the new media like X and Facebook. He just tweets and tweets and tweets and gives more interviews than any other president. The new media has diminished the power of the traditional media.
Huey dominated the Louisiana media despite opposition from all the major newspapers. He would write a circular memorandum to bring forth his views and had a private distribution system so that it would be on everybody's porch or mailbox the next day.
Similarly, Huey Long took advantage of the radio, a new medium, which diminished the power of the press.
I believe that somebody in Trump's orbit, probably Steve Bannon, or Trump himself, has read extensively about Huey. If you look at the recent news, Steve Bannon wants Trump to tax the wealthy at a higher rate because that would remove the main issue on which Trump is vulnerable to Democrats; and he's right.
The main distinguishing factor between Huey and Trump is Trump wants to blame problems on immigrants and migrants, whereas Huey focused his fire on the wealthy.
He believed that the greed of the oligarchs was denying the American dream to the average American family. He wanted to tax wealth, guarantee a minimum income, reduce the hours of labor, balance the farm program, provide generous old-age pensions, and provide veterans' benefits.
Those things oppose most of what Trump is doing.
Policy-wise, is there anything we can learn from Huey Long? Are ideas similar to his still being pursued in Washington?
Taxing the rich at a higher rate would fully align with Huey Long’s ideas. Taxing wealth, not just income, is an idea that some economists, such as Piketty, have advocated.
Huey Long wanted to provide free college or vocational education to qualified individuals, important today not only to improve social mobility but also as a matter of national security, given the educational statistics from China and India.
Huey Long wanted to provide a minimum income for deserving families. If you Google minimum income and look at the list of people who support that idea, it’s quite impressive.
Modern progressive politicians could learn a lot from this biography. Bernie Sanders denounces the oligarchy, but I am unsure what his proposal is to curb it. Nobody's proposing a minimum income per family, even though many people have endorsed the idea.
When Huey arrived in the Senate in 1932, it was the third year of the Great Depression during Republican Herbert Hoover's presidency. But he was disgusted at what he saw.
Democratic senators were like whipped roosters getting pecked on the head, sitting there bleeding and taking it; they suffered from political paralysis, he said.
That reminds me of Democrats today, just bleeding and taking it and afflicted with political paralysis. If they want to defeat Trump, they should read this biography.
Who is your audience for the book?
Huey Long is a fascinating story. Huey never graduated from high school, attended only two semesters of law school, and came from a charming town in northern Louisiana located in the middle of nowhere.
It’s a fabulous story of someone coming from nothing to becoming the number two most photographed person in the United States in 1935, and it was based on the power of his ideas as well as his political finesse.
Political activists on the right and left should read the book. Lawyers and business professionals should read it because they would see the characteristics that made him successful and some of the factors that led to defeats.
Individuals with an above-average education and an interest in economics would likely find the discussion of the Great Depression and Huey’s proposed remedy for it interesting.
Sociologists and people curious about theories of social movements or revolutions would find it informative. And historians, of course, given that I provided a unique perspective to the Kingfish and his contemporaries.
Thomas E. Patterson is a full-time practicing lawyer. He has been rated as a Super Lawyer and was part of winning the largest legal malpractice verdict in Ohio history.
For his next project, he’s exploring ideas for books that would interest lawyers and about fascism in the United States.
As far as his other work, in 2009, the American Bar Association published his book, Handling the Business Emergency: Temporary Restraining Orders and Preliminary Injunctions (ABA 2009).
With respect to his latest work, the LSU Press awarded American Populist: Huey Long of Louisiana the Landry Prize, a recognition previously won by John Hope Franklin and William Ivy Hair.
Readers can purchase American Populist on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other sites.
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