Prairie Populist: The Life and Times of Usher L. Burdick

Edward C. Blackorby's biography of Usher L. Burdick tells the story of this engaging, outspoken son of the plains, from his early upbringing on Graham's Island in north-central North Dakota to his role as a senior legislator in the U.S. Congress. Burdick's political life reflected a series of crushing defeats and improbable resurrections, beginning first with his election to the state legislature in 1906 and losing the gubernatorial election in 1916. His second public career began in 1934 when he was endorsed by the Nonpartisan League and elected to the United States Congress where he served ten terms, 1935-1945 and 1949-1959. Through his own successes and failures, Usher Burdick played a significant role in North Dakota's political history. While perceptively examining Burdick's political life, Blackorby also weaves the strands of his roles as a son and brother, husband and father, banker, lawyer, historian, collector, rare book dealer, rancher, and horse trader throughout the book, forming a colorful tapestry of Burdick's life and times. Known as a square-dealer and a straight-talker, Usher Burdick never forgot his prairie populist roots. In 1953 he wrote, "While I am not now actually engaged in roping and hog-tieing wild horses, that profession helps a lot here in Congress where there are so many wild ones..." His eventual break with the Republican Party led to political success for his elder son, Quentin Burdick, who ran as a Democrat and first won a seat in the US Congress in 1958 and was elected as a US senator in 1960, a position he held for thirty-two years. The Burdick political dynasty meant that either the elder or younger Burdick served in a state or federal elective office in nearly every decade of the twentieth century. Blackorby has written a fascinating and valuable analysis of the forces at work in Usher Burdick's public and private history.