"Kenneth McKellar, Tennessee's longest serving senator, was born into Reconstruction Alabama and would eventually move to Memphis to practice law. In Memphis, his political ambitions grew, and he was a founding member of the Boss Crump political machine in Memphis. After a short stint in the US House, McKellar somewhat controversially supported an amendment that called for popular elections of US senators, and then immediately became one of the bill's beneficiaries in 1916. He enjoyed early Democratic successes, first under Woodrow Wilson and then in 1932 with the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. McKellar's time in the US Senate during the FDR presidency was marked by a leading role in the development of the Tennessee Valley Authority and a dogged advocacy of the New Deal. Southern Democrats enjoyed multiple victories at both the state and national level during McKellar's time, and after six successful elections, McCarthyism on the rise, and his physical health beginning to decline, McKellar's career ended with a defeat to Albert Gore Sr. In this political biography, Hill has probed archives and newspapers to bring readers an updated picture of Senator McKellar and to weigh his political ambitions and impact on Tennessee against the backdrop of two World Wars and America's longest serving US president"--