Power House: Arrington From Illinois

Taylor Pensoneau
American Literary Press (2006)
ISBN 1561679550
Reviewed by Debra Gaynor for Reader Views (1/07)

“My birth on July 4, 1906.  It was a hell of a long time ago.”  Perhaps the birth of Russell Arrington was a sign of his future.  Arrington rose from scarcity to affluence.  He was a businessman, an attorney and a politician.  Senator W. Russell Arrington was a man that wanted to solve problems.  “He was not possessed by a need to be liked, which gave him an advantage over colleagues who were concerned about offending others.”  “He was often an intractable foe of one governor and an invaluable ally of another.”  “He could be ruthless one minute and sensitive the next.”  “Arrington would be both a true legislator and a representative.”  He knew that he had to read the people around him.  He spent hours networking with them and learning what made them tick.  There were times when his stand on issues made both Democrats and Republicans uneasy.  “Charles Nicodemus, the Chicago Daily News political editor, was in a majority at the dawn of 1969 when he predicted that Ogilvie “seems certain to find Arrington one of his greatest blessings and biggest burdens.”
 
Taylor Pensoneau is an exceptional writer.  He tells an exhilarating story of an extraordinary man.  He is careful to demonstrate that his subject is not faultless.  Mr. Pensoneau shows Russell Arrington as he truly was, supercilious, a man that loved clout and wasn’t afraid of it, a man that used those talents to work for the betterment of his state.  The photographs bring the reader closer to the life of Russell Arrington.  I highly recommend “Power House: Arrington from Illinois” to those that enjoy biographies, politics and history.

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