MAN OF TOMORROW

Los Angeles Times reporter, columnist, and editor Newton brings his deep knowledge of California politics to an engaging, sympathetic biography of the state’s 34th and 39th governor, Jerry Brown (b. 1938).

Drawing on abundant media coverage, archival sources, and interviews with key figures, including Brown himself, the author, who has written biographies of Earl Warren and Dwight Eisenhower, recounts the career of an unconventional, influential political figure. The son of politician Pat Brown, Jerry entered a Jesuit seminary in 1955 to study for the priesthood. He left after a few years, bristling under the “rules of obedience.” He enrolled at the University of California, where an activist counterculture swirled around him, inspiring him “to bring the liturgical Catholicism of his training” and his “searching, restless intellect” to addressing real-world problems. After graduating from Yale Law School, he returned to California to work in politics. First elected to the Los Angeles School Board, in 1970, he campaigned as a reformer for secretary of state, winning by a small margin. A run for governor followed, and in 1974, after a narrow victory, he ascended to the State House, promising “energy, youth, clean and constructive government.” Although supporters praised the “rambunctious, ambitious and unorthodox aspects” of his personality, his popularity waned. After a second term, Brown reflected, “I believe the people of California would like a respite from me. And in some ways, I would like a respite from them.” He lost a Senate race, failed three times to win nomination for president, and took a few years for introspection before staging a comeback, facing down 10 opponents to win election as mayor of the benighted city of Oakland. What he learned from being mayor, he admitted, shaped his return to the governorship in 2011. He was older and, he believed, wiser than he had been decades earlier. Climate change became his overriding issue, for which he earned accolades at home and abroad. Newton follows all of Brown’s ups and downs in a fluid, highly readable biography.

A well-delineated portrait of an accomplished leader.