Report from a Last Survivor

Former US Senator Fred Harris (1930–2024) was a professor emeritus of political science at the University of New Mexico as well a director emeritus of the UNM Fred Harris Congressional Internship Program. He produced twenty nonfiction books on public policy, politics, and government, including the coedited Locked in the Poorhouse: Cities, Race, and Poverty in the United States, as well as three novels.

“Fred Harris has long practiced politics that really matters (what I call ‘politics with hair on it’), daring to challenge the powers that be on behalf of the powers that ought to be: workaday people who are being knocked down and held down by the privileged few. So meet this guy who’s had the guts, moral stamina, and sense of humor to keep battling the big shots, bastards, and bullshitters for decades, laughing all the way! His memoir is both the tao of Fred and a joyous romp through his lifetime of real politics done right.”—Progressive populist Democrat Jim Hightower“Fred Harris’s life and legacy are a timely reminder of what service to country really means. His efforts on behalf of working and marginalized people everywhere, his devotion to democracy, and his courage and compassion in service to a troubled nation give me hope that with ‘radical optimism’ we will see our way through our current crisis.”—Timothy B. Krebs, author of Understanding Urban Politics: Institutions, Representation, and Policies“Fred Harris’s life and legacy are a timely reminder of what service to country really means. His efforts on behalf of working and marginalized people everywhere, his devotion to democracy, and his courage and compassion in service to a troubled nation give me hope that with ‘radical optimism’ we will see our way through our current crisis.”—Timothy B. Krebs, author of Understanding Urban Politics: Institutions, Representation, and Policies