The fierce polarisation of contemporary politics has encouragedAmericans to read back into their nation's past a perpetual ideologicalstruggle between liberals and conservatives. However, in this timely book,David S. Brown advances an original interpretation that stresses the criticalrole of moderate statesmen, ideas, and alliances in making our politicalsystem work. Beginning with John Adams and including such key figuresas Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., and BillClinton, Brown charts the vital if uneven progress of centrism through thecenturies. Moderate opposition to both New England and southern secessionistsduring the early republic and later resistance to industrial oligarchyand the modern Sunbelt right are part of this persuasion's far-reaching legacy.Time and again moderates, operating under a broad canopy of coalitions,have come together to reshape the nation's electoral landscape.

Today's bitter partisanship encourages us to deny that such a moderatetradition is part of our historical development-one dating back to theConstitutional Convention. Brown offers a less polemical and far more compellingassessment of our politics.