For The Exploration
Of Montana Issues

Guest Opinion Piece in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle written by Wheeler Center board member, Marc C. Johnson and Wheeler Center executive director, Laurel Angell. This piece highlights the important role of Montana's past political leaders in preserving democracy. This was published in connection with Johnson's new book, "Mansfield and Dirksen: Bipartisan Giants of the Senate" which was recently published by the University of Oklahoma Press. Marc C. Johnson is also a fellow at the Mansfield Center at the University of Montana.

Montana Senator Mike Mansfield, a soft-spoken, laconic, former Butte copper miner and later college history professor, still holds the record as the longest serving Senate majority leader in American history. This essay about Mansfield’s relationship with journalists, and in return their regard for him, is adapted from a new book – Mansfield and Dirksen: Bipartisan Giants of the Senate — by historian Marc C. Johnson. Johnson serves as a board member to the Wheeler Center and is a fellow at the Mansfield Center at the University of Montana. His latest book on Mansfield and Republican Senate leader Everett Dirksen of Illinois was published this month by the University of Oklahoma Press.