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University Press returns with another short and captivating portrait of one of history’s most compelling figures, John Boehner. John Boehner is one of America’s most influential political leaders of the 20th and 21st centuries. Before he stepped down as Speaker of the House of Representatives and retired from Congress in 2015, he was an ardent champion of conservative causes, a vocal advocate for his constituents, and a force to be reckoned with in the Republican Party. Yet he understood the value of compromise and he shared a deep mutual respect with his congressional colleagues on both sides of the political aisle. Born in Reading, Ohio to a large, hard-working, Catholic family, John Andrew Boehner grew up with 11 siblings in a two-bedroom one-bathroom house, began working in the family-owned bar at age eight, played linebacker on his high school football team, enlisted in the U.S. Navy, worked his way through college as a night shift janitor, became the first person in his family to graduate from college, got married, had two daughters, was rapidly promoted to president of a sales firm, was elected to local and state political offices in Ohio, was elected to the United States Congress, served as America’s 53rd Speaker of the House of Representatives, retired from Congress, and has recently unleashed scathing criticisms of fellow Republicans. This short book tells the intensely human story of a man who is changing the world in a way that no one else can.