Perseus Academic: Inside by Joseph A. Califano Jr.

Joe Califano grew up in a tight-knit working class family in Depression-era Brooklyn. His parents instilled in their son a work ethic, sense of self, and devotion to Church that stayed with him as he rose through the ranks of America's ruling class. From Jesuit undergraduate schools to Harvard Law, influential law firms, Robert McNamara's Pentagon, Lyndon Johnson's White House, and Jimmy Carter's Cabinet, Califano was hard-charging, effective, and committed to his causes, whether that meant reforming the military, working for equal rights for all, his struggle to be a committed Catholic in America, or finally his passion to combat addictions that ruin so many American lives.

The book is called Inside, and that's where it takes us — inside his public and private life — as Califano worked in the power centers of three Democratic administrations. He shows us how hardball is often necessary to make government serve its people. Califano remained inside even out of government, representing the Washington Post and Democratic Party during Watergate. Inside is a history, a memoir, and a profoundly revealing personal drama of a powerful figure involved in many defining events of the last half century. It is a tale of how ambition, tenacity and courage, guided by deeply felt ethics, can move the world from the inside.

Joseph A. Califano, Jr. held key positions in the Kennedy, Johnson, and Carter administrations as Defense Secretary Robert McNamara's top troubleshooter, LBJ's domestic affairs chief, and Carter's secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. As HEW secretary in 1978 he started the first national anti-smoking campaign, calling cigarette smoking slow motion suicide and Public Health Enemy Number One. In 1992, he founded The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University.