Author Event: July 29, 2023, from 11a.m. to 2p.m.

Please join us on July 29, 2023, from 11a.m. to 2p.m. when author Kenton Bird will sign copies of Tom Foley: The Man in the Middle.  (2023, University Press of Kansas)

From the publisher:

Thomas S. Foley represented eastern Washington in Congress for thirty years. From 1972 to 1994, his district included Walla Walla County. In 1989 he became the first Speaker of the House of Representatives from a district west of Texas, a position he held until his defeat in the 1994 election.

Tom Foley: The Man in the Middle is a political biography of this important but often overlooked figure in modern congressional history. Co-authors Kenton Bird and John Pierce place Foley’s career in the context of his own life story and congressional politics in the late 20^th century.

Bird, a professor of journalism and mass media at the University of Idaho, and Pierce, a former professor and dean at Washington State University, offer the first major study of a transformative leader who brought politicians from both sides of the aisle together to make Congress work. 

Bird will answer questions from readers about Tom Foley’s contributions to American politics and his impact on eastern Washington. He’ll offer the authors’ analysis of Foley’s surprising loss in 1994.