Ira Shapiro: Recapturing Courage and Statesmanship in American Politics

This program is cancelled

Ira Shapiro, Former General Counsel and Ambassador, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, Clinton Administration; Veteran U.S. Senate Staff Member; Author, The Last Great Senate: Courage And Statesmanship in Times of Crisis

Journalists have called the U.S. Senate an empty chamber; politicians have lamented that the institution is broken – yet the Senate was once capable of greatness, Shapiro contends. He explains that senators of the 1960s and ’70s overcame Southern opposition to civil rights, passed Great Society legislation and battled the executive branch on Vietnam, Watergate and abuses of power. The Right’s sweep of the 1980 elections shattered that Senate, posits Shapiro, leaving a diminished institution in its wake. Shapiro spent 12 years working for Senators Gaylord Nelson, Abraham Ribicoff, Thomas Eagleton, Robert Byrd and Jay Rockefeller. He will present a vivid portrait of the statesmen who helped steer America during the crisis years of the late 1970s.

Location: SF Club Office
Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program, 1 p.m. book signing
Cost: $10 standard, $5 members, students free (with valid ID)