Sundquist, James L. Papers

Administrative Analyst, U.S. Bureau of the Budget, 1941-1947, 1949-1951; Reports and Statistics Officer, Office of Defense Mobilization, 1951-1953; Fellow and Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution, 1965-1985

The papers of James L. Sundquist include correspondence, printed materials, speech drafts, notes, unpublished articles, a diary, and other documents created or compiled by Sundquist during his career as a scholar, author, government official, and political adviser.

[Administrative Information | Biographical Sketch | Collection Description | Series Descriptions | Folder Title List]

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ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Size: 5 linear feet, 8 linear inches (about 10,000 pages).
Access: Open.
Copyright: The donor gave his copyright interest in writings in this collection, and in any other collection in the custody of the National Archives and Records Administration, to the United States of America. Documents created by U.S. Government employees in the course of their official duties are in the public domain. Copyright interest in other documents in this collection presumably belongs to the creators of those documents, or their heirs.
Processed by: Randy Sowell (2018).

[ Top of the page | Administrative Information | Biographical Sketch | Collection Description | Series Descriptions | Folder Title List ]

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

1915 (October 16)		Born James Lloyd Sundquist, West Point, Utah
1935-1939		Reporter, Salt Lake Tribune
1939		B.S. degree, University of Utah
1941		M.A. degree in Public Administration, Syracuse University
1941-1947, 1949-1951		Administrative Analyst, U.S. Bureau of the Budget
1947-1949		Director of Management Control, European Command, U.S. Army, Berlin
1951-1953		Reports and Statistics Officer, Office of Defense Mobilization
1953-1954		Aide to Stephen Mitchell, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee
1955-1956		Aide to Governor W. Averell Harriman of New York
1957-1962		Administrative Assistant to Senator Joseph S. Clark, Jr. of Pennsylvania
1963-1965		Deputy Undersecretary of Agriculture
1965-1985		Fellow and Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution
1985-2016		Senior Fellow Emeritus, Brookings Institution
2016 (February 17)		Died, Arlington, Virginia

[ Top of the page | Administrative Information | Biographical Sketch | Collection Description | Series Descriptions | Folder Title List ]

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COLLECTION DESCRIPTION

The papers of James L. Sundquist include correspondence, printed materials, speech drafts, notes, unpublished articles, a diary, and other documents created or compiled by Sundquist during his career as a scholar, author, government official, and political adviser. The collection is arranged in a single series, a Subject File.

The collection contains newspaper articles written by Sundquist for the Salt Lake Tribune and other examples of his writings as a young man on such topics as religion, politics, and the U.S. Supreme Court; memorandums and other documents relating to his work with the Bureau of the Budget, the Military Government of Germany, and the Office of Defense Mobilization during the Presidencies of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman; drafts of speeches and statements Sundquist prepared for President Truman during the 1952 campaign (while he was on temporary loan to the White House); and correspondence, speech drafts, press releases, and other documents pertaining to his work during the 1950s and early 1960s as an assistant to Democratic National Committee Chairman Stephen Mitchell, Governor W. Averell Harriman of New York, and Senator Joseph S. Clark of Pennsylvania. Included among this material is information about Harriman's unsuccessful bid for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 1956 and Clark's successful campaign for reelection to the Senate in 1962.

Sundquist's activities as Deputy Under Secretary of Agriculture from 1963 to 1965 are noted in a handwritten diary he kept during that period, and in other documents reflecting his work for Under Secretary of Agriculture Charles S. Murphy on rural development programs, as well as his involvement in the early stages of President Lyndon B. Johnson's "War on Poverty." Also in the collection are correspondence, printed materials, and other documents associated with Sundquist's work as a scholar at the Brookings Institution after 1965; drafts of the Democratic Party platform that Sundquist helped prepare in 1968; information concerning various organizations to which Sundquist belonged; research materials relating to American political history and the history of the Democratic Party; and documents compiled by Sundquist after his retirement from the Brookings Institution in 1985.

The collection contains both personal and professional correspondence, including letters written by Sundquist, his first wife Beth, other relatives, close friends, and colleagues. The printed materials in the collection include articles written by Sundquist or quoting his opinions on American politics and government. There are also many unpublished articles and speeches in the collection; written by Sundquist and others, they reflect his interest in such subjects as reform of the U.S. Constitution, the interaction of American political parties, and the efficient administration of government on all levels.

Also included in the collection are reviews, correspondence, and other documents relating to books Sundquist wrote during and after his years with the Brookings Institution, including Politics and Policy: The Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson Years (1968); Making Federalism Work (written with David W. Davis, 1969); On Fighting Poverty (edited by Sundquist, 1969); Dynamics of the Party System (1973); Dispersing Population (1975); The Decline and Resurgence of Congress (1981); and Constitutional Reform and Effective Government (1986).

The Truman Library also has an oral history interview with James L. Sundquist, as well as the papers of Stephen Mitchell, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

[ Top of the page | Administrative Information | Biographical Sketch | Collection Description | Series Descriptions | Folder Title List ]

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