Let the People In: The Life and Times of Ann Richards by Jan Reid (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Let the People In: The Life and Times of Ann Richards by Jan Reid Amy Atchison Let the People In: The Life and Times of Ann Richards. By Jan Reid. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2012. xxiii + 467 pp. Photographs, references, index. $27.00 cloth. A few of the words often used to describe Ann Richards are “colorful,” “complex,” and “controversial.” Many of the anecdotes in Jan Reid’s recent biography, Let the People In: The Life and Times of Ann Richards, illustrate those colors, complexities, and controversies. The author, a longtime friend of Richards, is able to blend his personal recollections of Richards with information from her friends, family, and personal papers to provide snapshots of Richards’s life set against the backdrop of Texas politics. Reid uses interviews with Richards’s children and correspondence between Richards and her longtime companion Bud Shrake to illustrate Richards’s colorful personal life. He demonstrates her complexities by pointing out that Richards was not only loyal, pragmatic, charismatic, and committed to public service but also self-centered, acerbic, and often abusive toward her staff. Reid also recounts stories about Richards’s controversial decisions and opinions, such as her support for “Robin Hood” funding of Texas schools and her position on abortion. As remarkable as some of Reid’s tales are, the book is disappointing on three fronts. First, the biography reads like a series of disconnected stories rather than as a unified narrative. For example, in less than two full pages (200 to 201), the author careens from a story about a roast of legendary nfl coach Bum Phillips, to a prison meeting with a group of female death-row inmates that included Karla Faye Tucker, to Richards’s uncertainties about running for governor. In addition, the prison meeting—like many other accounts in the book—seems to have been included as the result of an overabundance of material and suggests a lack of judicious editing. Second, the benefit of Reid’s personal perspective on Richards is balanced by his often one-sided treatment of her. Reid is quite clear from the outset that he knew, liked, and respected Richards. He also notes that the Richards family “trusted me to do my best to tell Ann’s story right” (427). As a result, the biography is neither neutral nor unbiased. Criticisms of Richards abound, but they are either dismissed or treated as afterthoughts. A more even-handed treatment of her flaws would give the reader a deeper understanding of Richards as both a person and a politician. Third, the author highlights many of Richards’s [End Page 208] qualities, both positive and negative, but does little to explain some very important facets of her political life and persona. Why did Richards, typically a political pragmatist, make abortion rights a litmus test for political appointees? Why, despite her progressive views on nearly everything else, did Richards ultimately support the death penalty? It is in answering these types of questions that Reid’s personal knowledge of Ann Richards could have provided insight into her decision-making. Despite these criticisms, Reid’s insider accounts of Texas’s infamous political intrigues, feuds, and infighting will be hard for Texas politics junkies to put down. However, the level of detail may prove daunting to readers who are not already familiar with the basics of Texas politics. In all, the book provides an interesting, if superficial, look into the life and times of one of America’s most vibrant and remarkable politicians. Amy Atchison Department of Political Science and International Relations Valparaiso University Copyright © 2014 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln