About this item
The fierce polarization of contemporary politics has encouraged Americans to read back into their nation's past a perpetual ideological struggle between liberals and conservatives. However, in this timely book, David S. Brown advances an original interpretation that stresses the critical role of moderate statesmen, ideas, and alliances in making our political system work. Beginning with John Adams and including such key figures as Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., and Bill Clinton, Brown charts the vital if uneven progress of centrism through the centuries. Moderate opposition to both New England and southern secessionists during the early republic and later resistance to industrial oligarchy and the modern Sunbelt right are part of this persuasion's far-reaching legacy.
About the Author
David Brown is the author of several books on U.S. biography, including "The First Populist: The Defiant Life of Andrew Jackson," "The Last American Aristocrat: The Brilliant Life and Improbable Education of Henry Adams," and "Paradise Lost: A Life F. Scott Fitzgerald." His book, "Richard Hofstadter: An Intellectual Biography," was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. He lives in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania.
