Associate professor of journalism Joe Weber recently released his new book “Rhymes with Fighter: Clayton Yeutter, American Statesman” with University Nebraska Press.
The book launch was held at the Sheldon Art Gallery in Lincoln on Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021, and also featured former trade negotiators Warren Maruyama and Darci Vetter who spoke on the future of global trade and the impact Yeutter left on the industry.
The biography tells the life story of Clayton Yeutter, a Nebraska native (1930-2017) whose accomplishments in agriculture, economics and international trade have made a major impact on the world.
Yeutter worked for four U.S. presidents, serving in the cabinets of two of them. His challenge, posed by one of President Ronald Reagan’s aides, was to “go forth and change the world.”
As a U.S. trade representative, Yeutter did this by opening the global trading area that led to NAFTA, the creation of the World Trade Organization and more. Essentially, the global trading practice we see today all began with Yeutter.
Yeutter was a lawyer with a doctorate in economics. His expertise in business development gave him the opportunity to lead the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, now the CME Group.
Yeutter’s Nebraska roots eventually led him to become the secretary of agriculture during President George H. W. Bush’s time in office.
Author bio
Joe Weber, the Jerry and Karla Huse Professor of News-Editorial and associate professor of journalism, worked in magazines and newspapers for 35 years. He spent most of that time, 22 years, reporting and writing for BusinessWeek, starting as a correspondent in Dallas and then running the magazine's bureaus in Philadelphia, Toronto and Chicago. He took on the role of chief of correspondents for the organization in early 2006, serving until the summer of 2009.
Weber’s first book, Transcendental Meditation in America: How a New Age Movement Remade a Small Town In Iowa, was published by the University of Iowa Press. His second, Divided Loyalties: Young Somali Americans and the Lure of Extremism, was published by the Michigan State University Press.
