Hope and Hard Truth: A Life in Texas Politics

Mary Beth Rogers has led an eventful life rooted in the weeds of Texas politics, occasionally savoring a few victories-particularly the 1990 governor's race when, as campaign manager for Ann Richards, she did the impossible and put a Democratic woman in office. She also learned to absorb her losses-after all, she was a liberal feminist in America's most aggressively conservative state.

Rogers's road to a political life was complex. Candidly and vulnerably, she shares both public and private...