Foreword / by Joe Biden
A political life
Against the grain
Oakington
A plan for life
Reform and independence
Against the legislative tide
Regulating savings and loan associations
Kennedy Man
A prosecutor the organization didn't want
A thirty-two-month learning experience
A tangle of savings and loan scams
Kidnapping, murder, and assassination
Challenging the Democratic machine
A break with the past
A freshman senator's voice
Defending the great Warren Court decisions
"A voteless people is a hopeless people"
Fairness in federal court
Congress and the City of Washington
The hardest fights
Vietnam and the political costs of war
The environment and overpopulation
Gun control
One progressive position too many
Citizen public service
Epilogue: An open letter to my grandchildren (and their generation).