THE MAKING OF AMERICA - R. LA FOLLETTE LIMITED ED 381/1000, 1906 10 Vols Leather

  THE MAKING OF AMERICA — By U.S. Senator and Presidential Candidate Robert M. La Follette — Limited Edition 381/1000 Copies, 10 Volume Leather-bound Set — 1906, SCARCE

 Publisher: The Making of America Company, Chicago (1906)

Beautiful and very scarce, luxury leather-bound limited edition set (complete 10 volumes) from 1906 of THE MAKING OF AMERICA by U.S. Senator and Presidential candidate Robert M. La Follette. The ten volumes are in very well preserved condition. The boards and binding are solid and tight save for light shelfwear. The pages are crisp and clean save for a straightened light crease to the first three pages of volume one and a very small corner chip to top spine corner of volume ten; all other volumes remain in very well preserved condition. The publication assembles the best thought of recognized authority on commercial industrial, political, and social development of the US. Plates with color diagrams, maps and fold-out charts with tissue. Please see below for volumes' contents, and a biography of Robert M. La Follette. 

Contents of the Volumes 

Vol I: The People and Their Social Life 
Vol II: Statesmanship and Diplomacy
Vol III: Industry and Finance
Vol IV: Trade and Commerce
Vol V: Agriculture 
Vol VI: Mining and Metallurgy
Vol VII: Science and Invention 
VIII: Labor
Vol IX: Army and Navy 
Vol X: Public Welfare

Biography 

Robert M. La Follette (June 14, 1855 – June 18, 1925) was an American Republican and Progressive politician. He represented Wisconsin in both chambers of Congress and served as the Governor of Wisconsin. A Republican for most of his career, he ran for President of the United States as the nominee of his own Progressive Party in 1924. He served as Wisconsin's governor from 1901 to 1906. He sought numerous progressive reforms as governor, including workers' compensation and women's suffrage. While serving as governor, he won election to the United States Senate, holding office from 1906 to 1925.

He became a national leader of the progressive movement and a vocal opponent of railroad trusts, bossism, World War I, and the League of Nations. He sought the Republican nomination for president in the 1912 election, but most of his supporters coalesced behind Theodore Roosevelt. La Follette ran for president again in 1924, creating the Progressive Party to challenge incumbent Republican President Calvin Coolidge and Democrat John W. Davis. Running on a ticket with Democratic Senator Burton K. Wheeler, La Follette carried Wisconsin and won 17% of the popular vote, one of the best third party performances in U.S. history. La Follette died shortly after the presidential election.

La Follette has been called "arguably the most important and recognized leader of the opposition to the growing dominance of corporations over the Government" and is one of the key figures in Wisconsin's long history of political liberalism. In 1957, a Senate Committee selected La Follette as one of the five greatest U.S. Senators, along with Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun, and Robert A. Taft.  A 1982 survey asking historians to rank the "ten greatest Senators in the nation's history" based on "accomplishments in office" and "long range impact on American history," placed La Follette first, tied with Henry Clay.