| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 90.2

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 90.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Joseph W. Byrns of Tennessee: A Political Biography. By Ann B. Irish. (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2001. xvi, 318 pp. $30.00, ISBN 1-57233-131-3.)

Joseph W. Byrns of Tennessee by Ann B. Irish recounts the life of a remarkable man almost unknown to historians. "Jo" Byrns (1869–1936) rose from prosperous yeoman roots to become a respected state legislator, speaker of the lower house in Tennessee, and a twenty-seven-year veteran in Congress. For twenty-two years he served on the House Appropriations Committee before rising to chairman in 1931, Democratic majority leader in 1933, and Speaker of the House in 1934. A sudden heart attack ended his life a few days before Congress adjourned in 1936. Throughout his life Byrns was a character type and, to a degree, predictable. A southerner, he was conservative racially and fiscally. He was thoroughly Democratic, perhaps his only political principle. Byrns loyally supported the New Deal even though he found some of it too liberal, idealistic, and unfeasible.

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