Shelfies #43: Leland Shurin

I've been interested in government, politics and political campaigns since I was very young. The three books that I am going to highlight reflect that interest.

Robert Kennedy by Evan Thomas is a biography of the Senator who was assassinated in 1968 while running for President. I was a great fan of Robert Kennedy, I thought he was the person who could bring everyone - rich and poor, white and Black, industrialists and unions - together during a turbulent time. I left law school my senior year for ten days to open his campaign headquarters and hire staff for him in the state of Indiana for the Presidential primary there.

Truman by David McCullough is a biography of President Truman. Harry Truman was the top elected official in Jackson County, in Missouri (a county where I was born and raised) when he ran for and won a US Senate seat. He then became the Vice President at the insistence of political party bosses in 1944. Soon after the election, FDR died and  Harry Truman became President. Some people have called him the last real human being to be President. For example, the last action he took as President of the United States was to return a pencil from his pocket onto the Oval Office desk. He was a Midwesterner who was not afraid to make decisions. When I was very young, I remember being in downtown Kansas City, Missouri with my father, and on several occasions, seeing then former President Truman walking. He was probably heading to the Muehlebach Hotel to play poker with some of his buddies.

Third in this list are two of the Robert Caro trilogy about Lyndon Baines Johnson: LBJ. He forced Congress to pass civil rights and social programs known as the “Great Society." After graduating from college, I worked one summer in Washington D.C. and had the opportunity to be at the White House and meet the President. The Caro books are masterpieces of detail and information about LBJ and his amazing career, starting as a teacher in rural Texas and ending as President of the United States.

Also included is a photo of one of my boards of political campaign pins. I now have a collection of several thousand. In the bottom right-hand corner is a pin for Robert F. Kennedy for President. I got it while working in the Indiana primary campaign.

Leland Shurin is the former managing partner of the Kansas City-based law firm Shaffer Lombardo Shurin. He is an arbitrator, mediator and special master serving on hundreds of cases, both private and through the American Arbitration Association. He attended last year’s Democratic National Convention and served on the Rules Committee.

Shelfies is edited by Lavie Tidhar and Jared Shurin.
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