The Road From Here; Liberalism and Realities in the 1980s

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1981. First Edition. Presumed first printing. Hardcover. Very good/good. xvi, 280, [8] pages. Appendix. DJ soiled, DJ in plastic sleeve. Signed by the author. Paul Efthemios Tsongas (February 14, 1941 - January 18, 1997) was an American politician. He represented Massachusetts in both houses of the United States Congress, holding office from 1975 to 1985. He won seven states as a candidate in the 1992 Democratic presidential primaries, losing the nomination to Bill Clinton. Tsongas was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 1983 and declined to seek re-election in 1984. He returned to politics after undergoing a successful bone marrow transplant. He experienced early success in the 1992 Democratic presidential primaries, winning the New Hampshire primary, but withdrew from the race in March 1992 and endorsed Clinton. An opponent of deficit spending, Tsongas co-founded the Concord Coalition. He died in 1997 of complications from pneumonia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Derived from a Kirkus review: Written before the 1980 election debacle for his party and his liberal colleagues, this is Massachusetts' junior senator Tsongas' appeal for a realistic and pragmatic liberalism. What's ostensibly "realistic" about this new liberalism is: 1) Tsongas' acceptance that energy is the number one problem, and that there is no way we can free ourselves from foreign domination without some use of nuclear power (this, coincident with the almost total collapse of nuclear plant construction nationwide); 2) his acknowledgment that a lot of social programs--like CETA--proved to be easily corruptible; and 3) his readiness to embrace "the business community" in order to make life better for us all. Coming from Lowell, Mass., Tsongas has seen the results of capital flight out of the old industrial areas, and his solution, which has brought him the support of business, was to provide tax breaks and other incentives to draw industry back. This had to be coupled with tax breaks for investment and savings.