Senator Lamar Alexander — The Education of a Senator
Former US Senator and Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander reflects on six decades in American politics — a rare memoir from someone who worked across the aisle in a different era.
Why we picked this
Alexander served as Governor, Education Secretary under two administrations, and three Senate terms — his account of how American politics changed across those decades is firsthand history, not punditry.
Lamar Alexander served as Governor of Tennessee, Secretary of Education under both George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, and US Senator for three terms before retiring in 2021. His memoir The Education of a Senator draws on those six decades to offer an account of American political life from the inside — how legislation actually got made, how the Senate changed, and what the conditions were that allowed bipartisan cooperation to function before it broke down.
Alexander is a genuinely unusual figure in recent Republican politics: a conservative who consistently defended institutional norms, worked across the aisle on major legislation including the Every Student Succeeds Act, and was one of the handful of Republican senators who showed willingness to break with party discipline during the Trump years. His insider account carries the credibility of someone who was actually in the room.
The Wharf venue has become a home for conversations about American political history from participants rather than observers. This is an evening for readers who want to understand how the system worked — and how it changed.