A Rage for Justice

Democratic U.S. Representative Phillip Burton was one of the most influential power brokers the House has ever known, and almost certainly the most powerful leftist in that body's history. Political journalist John Jacobs's densely packed biography charts his career from the California state legislature to Capitol Hill, including dozens of anecdotes about politics at its most cutthroat. The section on his spearheading of 1978 legislation for the national parks system is particularly fascinating. The portrait of Burton that emerges from A Rage for Justice is of a complex man whose intense personality generated enough ill feeling to keep him from becoming a majority leader in his party, yet still fueled more than enough political drive to push legislation through.