Thunder from the Prairie

“A comprehensive and overdue look at an American political leader who overcame the traumas of poverty, war, and alcoholism. Iowa Governor and Senator Harold Hughes led his state government into a modern era and helped lead the nation out of a war in Vietnam. He touched millions with his crusade against drug and alcohol abuse. Thunder from the Prairie is a noteworthy study of Iowa and national political history. Hughes’ story is also a welcome inspiration told at a time when too many leaders inspire too little.”—David Yepsen, former Des Moines Register political reporter

“Harold Hughes was born in the small western Iowa town of Ida Grove. He won a prized football scholarship to play for the University of Iowa Hawkeyes, but soon returned to Ida Grove and, after fighting the Nazis in Europe, built a trucking company and was drawn into politics. After a Methodist minister helped Hughes overcome his drinking, Hughes ascended the Iowa political ladder, winning the governorship and a US Senate seat as a moderate reformer in traditionally Republican Iowa. The story is expertly told in these pages by long-time Iowan Jerry Harrington, who as a boy heard Hughes’s deep baritone on Iowa’s airwaves. That distant voice inspired Harrington’s life-long commitment to Iowa’s history and politics, which is now paying rich dividends for anyone interested in the story of Iowa and the Midwest more generally.”—Jon K. Lauck, coeditor of The Conservative Heartland: A Political History of the Postwar American Midwest

“This is the first biography of one of Iowa’s most important governors. Harrington’s book is engaging and deeply researched. It is a significant contribution to the history of Iowa and the Midwest.”—Jeff Bremer, associate professor at Iowa State University and author of A New History of Iowa, 1673–2020 and A Store Almost in Sight: The Economic Transformation of Missouri from the Louisiana Purchase to the Civil War

“Thunder from the Prairie is an excellent biography of the late Iowa governor and senator, Harold Hughes. It’s a book that will be appreciated by general readers as well as teachers and historians and is recommended to anyone interested in Iowa’s political heritage. Kudos to Jerry Harrington for reminding us of the contributions made by Harold Hughes to the history of our state.”—Timothy Walch, director emeritus, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library, and former trustee, State Historical Society of Iowa