The Ernest W. McFarland Papers: The United States Senate Years, 1940-1952

The papers of a political figure allow us to form an accurate account of their interests and activities, as well as their interactions with contemporary colleagues. They are unmatched as a primary historical source. Ernest W. McFarland’s political career spanned three decades and saw him succeed as a U.S. senator, governor of Arizona, and chief justice of the Arizona Supreme Court. Dating back to a time before congressional staffers routinely created a virtual blizzard of impersonal paperwork with a senator’s name attached to it, McFarland’s papers reveal personal communications that passed through his hands and reflect who he was and who he wanted to be. Donated by McFarland before his death in 1984, the collection is housed at the McFarland Historic State Park in Florence, Arizona. The papers constitute a single record group with seven subgroups, the most important of which is the U.S. Senate group, which makes up 163 of the 333 boxes of archival material. It is an edited collection from this subgroup that forms this volume. Ernest McFarland served as a Senator during World War II and then as majority leader of the Senate during the Korean War. The papers from his Senate years are an indispensable resource for anyone interested in the political landscape of our nation around the middle of the last century.