Against the Grain: Reflections of a Rebel Republican

Ashland, OR: White Cloud Press, 2001. First Edition. First Printing. very good, very good. 254, illus., index. Inscribed by the author (Hatfield). Against the Grain is a political and spiritual memoir of Senator Mark O. Hatfield, the most progressive politician in the Republican Party since Abraham Lincoln, covering his opposition to the Vietnam War, successful drafting of the Soviet-American nuclear freeze legislation with Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy, and his strong stands of conscience on health reform, the death penalty and the balanced budget amendment, which typically ran counter to the Republican mainstream. For five consecutive Senate terms, Hatfield made his mark, sometimes softly, sometimes stridently, fighting to serve the people of his country with honesty and devotion. Constantly opposing the military-industrial complex and the violence of the arms race, he fought for housing, employment, education, and basic human dignity. Throughout the book, and in the final section on spirituality, he offers hope, insight and solutions to the greatest violences facing our age: militarism, discrimination, materialism and poverty. He envisions a world where the "political-industrial complex" no longer holds sway and candidates are judged on merit, rather than marketed like toothpaste. In a world swerving out of control, his solutions move away from big government toward enlisting people's hearts and minds.