Overview

How Rick Perry navigated and shaped Texas politics as the state’s longest serving governor. Rick Perry, the charming rancher, pilot, and politician from West Texas who was governor from 2000 to 2015, is one of the most important but polarizing figures in the state's history. Over the nearly forty years he spent in the political arena, his political instincts served as a radar primed to sense future political opportunities. Hugging the arc of Texas political change, he shifted from a rural, “blue dog” Democrat to one of the most conservative politicians the state had elected up to that time, overseeing the enactment of controversial redistricting, voting, and abortion measures. Yet his evolution was complicated and incomplete, as his stands on such topics as immigration, vaccine requirements, and the use of state funds to attract business ran into opposition from a growing and ever-more conservative wing of the Republican Party in Texas-and the nation. Rick Perry is both a biography of Perry as a politician and a study of the shifts in state politics that took place during his time in office. Demonstrating that Perry ranks among the most consequential governors in Texas history, Brandon Rottinghaus chronicles the profound ways he accumulated power and shaped the governorship.

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9781477328897

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Reviews

In a sprawling new biography, Rick Perry: A Political Life, Brandon Rottinghaus revives the long, large, and colorful tale of Perry’s rise and reshaping of Texas politics. . . . This blend of in-the-moment color and retrospective helps provide some depth to Perry’s trajectory; longtime Texas political junkies and newer Lege students alike will benefit from the detailed recounting. * Texas Observer *

Author Information

Brandon Rottinghaus is a professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Houston. His most recent books are Inside Texas Politics, Current Debates in the Lone Star State, and Inside American Government. He is also the cohost of Party Politics, a TV8 show, a radio program on KUHF, and a podcast on Houston Public Media.

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