Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Advise and Consent by Allen Drury Richard M. Langworth. Senior Fellow, Hillsdale College Churchill Project, Writer and Historian. “Advise and Consent” by Allen Drury: Mandatory Viewing by Senators? 6 October 2018 Comments 1 Comment. “And now for something completely different” Apro​pos, of course, no cur​rent events in par​tic​u​lar, I pass along a rec​om​men​da​tion. It’s from a friend and fel​low polit​i​cal junkie. “The entire Unit​‐ ed States Sen​ate should be required to sit through an end​less looped show​ing of Advise and Con​sent.” The 1962 film is based on Allen Drury’s Pulitzer-prize win​ning 1959 nov​el. In the unlike​ly event you do not remem​ber the film, click here.” I agree utter​ly. I must watch it again. It is not a light​heart​ed flick…. The Plot (excerpt from Wikipedia) The Pres​i​dent of the Unit​ed States nom​i​nates Robert A. Leff​in​g​well as Sec​re​tary of State. The sec​ond-term Pres​i​dent, who is ill, has cho​sen Leff​‐ in​g​well on pur​pose. He does not believe that Vice Pres​i​dent Harley Hudson—whom both he and oth​ers usu​al​ly ignore—will suc​cess​ful​ly con​tin​ue his for​eign policy. Leffingwell’s nom​i​na​tion is con​tro​ver​sial. The Unit​ed States Sen​ate, using its advise and con​sent pow​ers, must either approve or reject. Both par​ties are divid​ed. Major​i​ty Leader Bob Mun​son loy​al​ly sup​ports the nom​i​nee. Although also of the major​i​ty, Pres​i​dent pro tem​pore Seabright “Seab” Coo​ley dis​likes Leff​in​g​well for per​son​al and pro​fes​sion​al rea​sons. Coo​ley leads the oppo​si​tion. Dem​a​gog​ic peace advo​cate Fred Van Ack​er​man is espe​cial​ly sup​port​ive. Mun​son repeat​ed​ly tells him not to aggra​vate the situation. The Sen​ate For​eign Rela​tions Com​mit​tee appoints a sub​com​mit​tee, chaired by major​i​ty mem​ber Brigham Ander​son of Utah, to eval​u​ate the nom​i​nee. Ander​son and his wife receive anony​‐ mous phone calls from Van Ackerman’s men. They warn that unless he reports favor​ably on Leff​in​g​well, scan​dalous infor​ma​tion about his past will appear. Col​leagues attempt to coun​sel Ander​son. But, unable to rec​on​cile his duty and his secret, Ander​son com​mits suicide. The Pres​i​dent is dev​as​tat​ed over Ander​son. Nev​er​the​less, he tells the major​i​ty leader, he is dying. Leffingwell’s con​fir​ma​tion is vital. Mun​son crit​i​‐ cizes Coo​ley for oppos​ing the nom​i​nee. In the Sen​ate Cham​ber Coo​ley apol​o​gizes for his “vin​dic​tive​ness.” He will vote against the nom​i​nee, but will not ask oth​ers to fol​low. Vice Pres​i​dent Hud​son, as Pres​i​dent of the Sen​ate, holds a quo​rum call. Then he asks for the “Yeas and Nays.” The vote is a tie. Every​one expects the Vice Pres​i​dent to break it in the nominee’s favor. Sud​den​ly, Secret Ser​vice agents enter the cham​ber and Hud​‐ son receives a mes​sage. He announces that he will not break the tie. The nom​i​na​tion fails. We learn that the Pres​i​dent has died dur​ing the vote. As he leaves for the White House, Hud​son tells Mun​son that he wants to choose his own nom​i​nee. Con​sti​tu​tion​al​ly the Vice Pres​i​dent could not break the tie, since he was already Pres​i​dent. By not vot​ing, he nev​er​the​less accom​plish​es his purpose. The Cast. The cast for Drury’s nov​el is bril​liant and mem​o​rable: Hen​ry Fon​da is Robert A. Leff​in​g​well. Charles Laughton is Sen​a​tor Seabright “Seab” Coo​‐ ley of South Car​oli​na. Don Mur​ray is Sen​a​tor Brigham “Brig” Ander​son of Utah. Wal​ter Pid​geon is Sen​ate Major​i​ty Leader Robert “Bob” Mun​‐ son. Peter Law​ford is Sen​a​tor Lafe Smith of Rhode Island (an approx​i​ma​tion, I always thought, of the young Sen​a​tor John F. Kennedy). Fran​chot Tone is Pres​i​dent of the Unit​ed States. The Drury Novels. Allen Drury, like George Orwell, was a hero-nov​el​ist of my youth. Advise and Con​sent, his most famous book, was first in a hex​ol​o​gy. Togeth​er, the six nov​els are a pre​scient back​drop to today’s pol​i​tics. Churchill used to say that his​to​ry doesn’t repeat, but human nature nev​er changes. Drury’s set​ting was the time of the Cold War. Yet we see the same char​ac​ter types, and some of the exact mind​sets, among politi​cians today. Advise and Consent. #1 New York Times bestseller and Pulitzer Prize winner. A seminal work of political fiction-as relevant today as when it was first published. A sweeping tale of corruption and ambition cuts across the landscape of Washington, DC, with the breadth and realism that only an astute observer and insider can convey. Read More. #1 New York Times bestseller and Pulitzer Prize winner. A seminal work of political fiction-as relevant today as when it was first published. A sweeping tale of corruption and ambition cuts across the landscape of Washington, DC, with the breadth and realism that only an astute observer and insider can convey. Read Less. All Copies ( 230 ) Softcover ( 78 ) Hardcover ( 140 ) Audiobook ( 2 ) Alternate Editions ( 2 ) Choose Edition ( 7 ) Book Details Seller Sort. Victoria, TX, USA. Edition: 1959, Doubleday Paperback, Good Details: Publisher: Doubleday Published: 1959 Language: English Alibris ID: 16542319723 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: €3,66. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Good. 760 p. : Sequel: A shade of difference. ► Contact This Seller. 1961, Pocket Books. Edition: 1961, Pocket Books Paperback, Fair Details: Publisher: Pocket Books Published: 01/1961 Language: English Alibris ID: 16512975667 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: €3,66. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Fair. Noticeably used book. Text is legible but may be soiled and have binding defects. Heavy wear to covers and pages contain marginal notes, underlining, and or highlighting. Possible ex library copy, with all the markings/stickers of that library. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, and dust jackets may not be included. ► Contact This Seller. Edition: 1959, Doubleday Hardcover, Fair Details: Publisher: Doubleday Published: 01/1959 Language: English Alibris ID: 15165878931 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: €3,66. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Fair. Noticeably used book. Text is legible but may be soiled and have binding defects. Heavy wear to covers and pages contain marginal notes, underlining, and or highlighting. Possible ex library copy, with all the markings/stickers of that library. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, and dust jackets may not be included. ► Contact This Seller. 1964, Pocket Books. Edition: 1964, Pocket Books Paperback, Fair Details: Publisher: Pocket Books Published: 01/1964 Language: English Alibris ID: 16500692914 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: €3,66. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Fair. Noticeably used book. Text is legible but may be soiled and have binding defects. Heavy wear to covers and pages contain marginal notes, underlining, and or highlighting. Possible ex library copy, with all the markings/stickers of that library. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, and dust jackets may not be included. ► Contact This Seller. 1964, Pocket Books. Edition: 1964, Pocket Books Paperback, Fair Details: Publisher: Pocket Books Published: 01/1964 Language: English Alibris ID: 15982145046 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: €3,66. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Fair. Noticeably used book. Text is legible but may be soiled and have binding defects. Heavy wear to covers and pages contain marginal notes, underlining, and or highlighting. Possible ex library copy, with all the markings/stickers of that library. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, and dust jackets may not be included. ► Contact This Seller. Edition: Pocket Books Paperback, Good Details: Publisher: Pocket Books Language: English Alibris ID: 16659620042 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: €3,66. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Good. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. Edition: Pocket Books Paperback, Fair Details: Publisher: Pocket Books Language: English Alibris ID: 16621939510 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: €3,66. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Fair. Readable copy. Pages may have considerable notes/highlighting. Edition: 1972, Avon Paperback, Fair Details: Publisher: Avon Published: 01/1972 Language: English Alibris ID: 16142510442 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: €3,66. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Fair. Noticeably used book. Text is legible but may be soiled and have binding defects. Heavy wear to covers and pages contain marginal notes, underlining, and or highlighting. Possible ex library copy, with all the markings/stickers of that library. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, and dust jackets may not be included. ► Contact This Seller. Edition: Pocket Books Paperback, Fair Details: Publisher: Pocket Books Language: English Alibris ID: 16676478241 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: €3,66. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Fair. Readable copy. Pages may have considerable notes/highlighting. Halethorpe, MD, USA. Edition: Pocket Books Paperback, Fair Details: Publisher: Pocket Books Language: English Alibris ID: 16680363966 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: €3,66. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Fair. Readable copy. Pages may have considerable notes/highlighting. Advise and Consent. Allen Drury's Advise and Consent is one of the high points of 20th Century literature, a seminal work of political fiction—as relevant today as when it was first published. A sweeping tale of corruption and ambition cuts across the landscape of Washington, DC, with the breadth and realism that only an astute observer and insider can convey. Allen Drury has penetrated the world's stormiest political battleground—the smoke-filled committee rooms of the United States Senate—to reveal the bitter conflicts set in motion when the President calls upon the Senate to confirm his controversial choice for Secretary of State. This novel is a true epic showing in fascinating detail the minds and motives of the statesmen, the opportunists, the idealists. From a Senate old-timer's wily maneuvers, a vicious demagogue's blistering smear campaign, the ugly personal jealousies that turn a highly qualified candidate into a public spectacle, to the tragic martyrdom of a presidential aspirant who refuses to sacrifice his principles for his career—never has there been a more revealing picture of Washington's intricate political, diplomatic, and social worlds. Advise and Consent is a timeless story with clear echoes of today's headlines. Includes Allen Drury's never-before-published original preface to Advise and Consent, his essay for the Hoover Institution on the writing of the book, as well as poignant personal memoirs from Drury's heirs. Advise and Consent (Drury) Advise and Consen t is a study of political animals in their natural habitat and is universally recognized as THE Washington novel. It begins with Senate confirmation hearings for a liberal Secretary of State and concludes two weeks later, after debate and controversy have exploded this issue into a major crisis. ( From the publisher .) Over the course of the novel, we follow four of the primary players in the U.S. Senate: Bob Munson, the affable and skilled Senate Majority Leader; Seab Cooley, the hornery Senator from South Carolina who carries a personal grudge against the nominee; Brigham Anderson, the talented and idealistic young Senate from Utah who heads up the subcommittee hearings; and Orrin Knox, Senator from Michigan who burns with an intense rivalry toward the man who sits in the White House. Each man, and others, must make a decision to follow their party dictate or their own moral compass. Fifty years after it was written Advise and Consent still speaks to us about the difficult trade-offs and compromise at the heart of governing. Author Bio • Birth—September 2, 1918 • Raised—Porterville, California • Death—September 2, 1998 • Where—Tiburon, California • Education—B.A., Stanford University • Awards—Pulitzer Prize. Allen Stuart Drury was a U.S. novelist. He wrote the 1959 novel Advise and Consent , for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1960. He was born to Alden Monteith Drury (1895-1975), a real estate broker and insurance agent, and Flora Allen (1894-1973), a legislative representative for the California Parent-Teacher Association. Drury's early American descendants were early immigrants to Massachusetts Bay Colony. Allen Stuart Drury grew up in Porterville, California, and earned his B.A. at Stanford University in 1939. In the 1990s, he wrote three novels inspired by his experiences at Stanford: Toward What Bright Glory?, Into What Far Harbor? , and Public Men . After graduating from Stanford, Drury went to work for the Tulare Bee in Porterville, where he won a Sigma Delta Chi Award for editorial writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. Drury enlisted in the U.S. Army on July 25, 1942 in Los Angeles and trained as an infantry soldier. A Senate Journal In late 1943, he was a 25-year old army veteran looking for work. A position as the United States Senate correspondent for United Press soon provided Drury not only with gainful employment, but also with the opportunity "to be of some slight assistance in making my fellow countrymen better acquainted with their Congress and particularly their Senate." In addition to fulfilling his duties as a reporter, Drury also kept a journal of his views of the Senate and individual senators. Drury freely offered his first impressions of many senators: "Alben Barkley, the Majority Leader, acts like a man who is working awfully hard and awfully earnestly at a job he doesn't particularly like." He considered Minority Leader Robert Taft "one of the strongest and ablest men here," and felt that "Guy Gillette of Iowa and Hugh Butler of Nebraska vie for the title of Most Senatorial. Both are model solons, white-haired, dignified, every inch the glamorous statesmen." Harry Truman was featured as his position changed from junior senator from Missouri to vice president to president in the course of Drury's narrative. Given the period it covered, it is natural that Drury's diary devoted considerable attention to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his contentious relations with the Senate. Drury wrote: "If he appears in a critical light, that is because this is how we saw him from the Hill." In addition to the chamber's personalities, Drury's journal captured the events, large and small, of the 78th and 79th Congresses. He characterized this period as "the days of the War Senate on its way to becoming the Peace Senate." At times the events Drury described had a national impact, such as FDR's death or the Senate's consideration of the United Nations Charter. In other cases, the effects were felt more clearly within the Senate community, such as the resignation of Majority Leader Barkley, the Senate's rejection of a congressional expense allowance, or the death of Secretary of the Senate Edwin Halsey. Although written in the mid-1940s, Drury's diary was not published until 1963. A Senate Journal found an audience in part because of the great success of Advise and Consent , Drury's 1959 novel about the Senate's consideration of a controversial nominee for Secretary of State. Later works Drury's greatest success was Advise and Consent , which was made into a film in 1962. The book was partly inspired by the suicide of Wyoming Senator Lester C. Hunt. It spent 102 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list. Drury followed Advise and Consent with several sequels. A Shade of Difference is set a year after Advise and Consent. Drury then turned his attention to the next presidential election after those events with Capable of Honor and Preserve and Protect . He then wrote two alternative sequels based on two different outcomes of an assassination attack in an earlier work: Come Nineveh, Come Tyre and The Promise of Joy . In 1971, Drury published The Throne of Saturn , a science fiction novel about the first attempt at sending a manned mission to Mars. He dedicated the work "To the US Astronauts and those who help them fly." Political characters in the book are archetypal rather than comfortably human. The book carries a strong anti-leftist/anti-communist flavor. The book has a lot to say about interference in the space program by leftist Americans. Having wrapped up his political series by 1975, Drury began a new one with the 1977 novel Anna Hastings, more a novel about journalism than politics. He returned to the timeline in 1979, with the political novel Mark Coffin U.S.S. (though the main relationship between the two books was that Hastings was a minor character in Mark Coffin U.S.S.'s sequels). It was succeeded, by the two-part The Hill of Summer and The Roads of Earth , which are true sequels to Mark Coffin U.S.S. He also wrote stand-alone novels, Decision (about the Supreme Court) and Pentagon, as well as several other fiction and non-fiction works. Drury's political novels have been described as page-turners, set against the Cold War, with an aggressive and determined Soviet Union seeking to undermine the U.S. Death Drury lived in Tiburon, California, from 1964 until his 1998 death of cardiac arrest. Drury had completed his 20th novel, Public Men set at Stanford, just two weeks before his death. He died on 2 September 1998 at St. Mary's Medical Center in San Francisco, California on his eightieth birthday. Drury was never married.[ ( From .) Book Reviews (O lder books have few, if any, mainstream press reviews online. See Amazon and Barnes & Noble for helpful customer reviews .) I can recall no other novel in which there is so well presented a president's dilemma when his awful responsibility for the nation's interest conflicts with a personal code of good morals. New York Times. Discussion Questions Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book: Also, consider these LitLovers talking points to get a discussion started for Advise and Consent: 1. The book is divided into 4 sections, each devoted to one the main characters. Which character do you find most sympathetic? Do you have a favorite? 2. How does the press come off in Drury's book. He himself was a press corp member. Does he look favorably or not so favorably on his fictional cohorts? 3. For Bob Munson, "it took time, and much study of men's hearts and minds to be a good leader." Munson himself has been at it for decades, first in the House, now as the Senate Majority Leader. Is Munson correct, that good leadership takes years to develop? Or is the call for term limits a good idea, to refresh a sclerotic government with new blood? 4. Why is the president so firm in his desire to have Bob Leffingwell as his secretary of state? What do you think of Leffingwell? Why does he lie in the subcommittee? 5. What were the stakes during the cold war when it came to charting a course for foreign policy—either appeasement or toughness? Does the nation face a similar problem today? 6. How would you describe the relations among all members of the Senate and between both sides of the aisle in this novel? Did the Senate (at least as portrayed in this novel) behave differently in the mid- to late-fifties than it does today? Why or why not? 7. When politicians compromise their positions are they weak? How do you feel when it comes to the bargaining and bartering that go on behind the scenes in this novel? 8. What do you think motivates the politicians in this book? Is it a higher concern for the welfare of the country or personal ambition? 9. Referring to constituents, Munson complains to a colleague that Senators are expected to. Decide high policy, legislate for the good of the country, run the government, and play nursemaid. too. How do they expect us to do any of it? Is Munson right? Do we expect too much of our elected officials? Or should the men and women we send to Washington be responsive to our individual needs? Who gains access to Senators anyway? 10. Talk in particular about Brigham Anderson's decision. Could he have taken another path? What would you have advised him, given the era in which the events of the book take place. 11. Does evil occur in this book? If so, who is responsible for setting it in motion? If not, why not? 12. SPOILER ALERT: What kind of president do you think Harley Hudson will make? Will he live up to the job and be capable of making sound decisions? 13. After reading Advise and Consent , how do you view politicians—at least those portrayed in this book? Do you see them as attempting to walk a fine line between their ideals and their ambitions? Do you feel their personal ambition frequently overtakes their ideals? Do you feel that most try to legislate for the good of the nation? Or does staying in office, "careerism" take precedence over devising fair and workable national policy? 14. Are today's politicians different than the way Drury wrote about them in 1957-58? ( Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks .) Advise and Consent by Allen Drury. This boxed set contains all six bestselling novels in Allen Drury’s Advise and Consent series, a masterwork of politics and human nature that spanned sixteen years of the author’s career. The original novel, Advise and Consent, is one of the high points of 20th Century literature, #1 New York Times bestseller and Pulitzer Prize winner. A seminal work of political fiction, it is as relevant today as when it was first published. A sweeping tale of corruption and ambition that cuts across the landscape of Washington, DC, with the breadth and realism that only an astute observer and insider can convey. In his novels, Allen Drury penetrates the world’s stormiest political battleground—the smoke-filled committee rooms of the United States Senate —to reveal the bitter conflicts and controversial politics when opposing parties struggle for power, by any means necessary. His works are true epics showing in fascinating detail the minds and motives of the statesmen, the opportunists, the idealists. These six novels in the Advise and Consent series follow his political cast of characters through epic worldwide struggles.