| Description |
Resting in the Highest Good: the Conscience of a Utah Liberal is a limited biography of Elbert Duncan Thomas, who served as United States Senator from Utah between 1933 and 1951. He was defeated by Wallace F. Bennett in the election of 1950. Elbert Thomas was a civilized man living in an uncivilized time who served the people of the state of Utah for nearly eighteen years from the floor of the United States Senate. He did so by drawing from an emotional and spiritual wellspring of ethical humanitarianism that lay at his moral center from birth to death. It is not intended to be a comprehensive recounting of his Senate career, but rather focuses on the moral and ethical worldview that guided his work by recounting specific events that are illustrative of those strongly held beliefs. It can also be argued that his strong sense of decency and fair play helped to lay him low in the election of 1950, since he refused to conduct his campaign on the uncivil level of his opponent. The bulk of research for the book was conducted in the personal papers of Elbert D. Thomas (housed at the Utah State Historical Archive), Frank Jonas (University of Utah Marriott Library Special Collections), Reed O. Smoot, Wallace F. Bennett, and Arthur V. Watkins (Harold B. Lee Library Special Collections, Brigham Young University). Additionally, approximately 153 book length secondary sources and numerous articles were consulted. As noted, no man evolves in a vacuum and I felt it necessary to construct a contextual landscape on which to place my subject. |
