Power and the Public Interest: The Memoirs of Joseph C. Swidler

Joseph Swidler (1907–1997) was one of the last New Dealers, part of a generation of talented professionals—including Harry Hopkins, Harold Ickes, and Morris Cohen—who devoted their energies to serving public, not private interests. In a career spanning six decades, he helped craft and administer the nation’s energy policy while witnessing most of the signal events of the modern age: the Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War, and America’s emergence as a superpower. Swidler’s memoir is…