7.6 /10 1 Votes
Originally published 1957 | 3.8/5 Goodreads | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nominations National Book Award for Nonfiction William Smith White books The Taft story, The making of a journalist, Majesty & mischief | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Citadel (sub-title: The Story of the U.S. Senate) is a study of the United States Senate by the journalist William S. White. Written in 1956, the book anticipates the great changes afoot in post-war Washington. John Gunther in Inside U.S.A. had put the problem of Southern intractability over civil rights reform in perspective, but White was the first to make public how skilled the Southern Senators were at utilising every procedural mechanism the chamber had to offer. White identified a controlling elite within this tiny and naturally inward-looking body: he called the "The Club".
Those who belong to it express, consciously or consciously, the deepest instincts and prejudices of the Senate type, a man for whom the Institution is a career in itself, a life in itself and an end in itself.
As White was himself to point out in retirement, it was these Old Bull's most trusted lieutenant, Lyndon Baines Johnson, who eventually neutralised their power.