Will Rogers

This is the first biography of Rogers (1879-1935), entertainer, columnist, and pundit, to focus largely on his political influence. White (public administration, Louisiana State Univ.; Kingfish: The Reign of Huey P. Long) examines Rogers, one of the most famous men of his day, as an intellectual with a humble touch, a man of prescience on national and global affairs and with substantial influence upon American politicians and plain folk alike. He argues that Rogers played a strong role shaping American opinion on topics from Prohibition and intervention in global affairs—both of which he ardently opposed—to New Deal policies and commercial air flight—which he backed. White reviews Rogers's trips as unofficial envoy to China and the Soviet Union, as well as his fallibility in embracing some of history's villains, in particular Mussolini, because he had "never met a man he didn't like."