This study of Olney shows the interrelationships among his private life, his personality, and his public career-highlighting his contributions (as the leading member of Grover Cleveland's second administration) to the major domestic and foreign problems of the era.

Historians have noted Olney's penchant for lashing out harshly at anyone that got in his way, his conflicts of interest as Attorney General, his diplomatic shortcomings as Secretary of State. Usually overlooked, however, was Olney's ability to learn from his mistakes and to work out solutions to the problems he stirred up. Not only did he beat down the Pullman Strikers, but he afterwards fought for compulsory arbitration of railway labor disputes. He not only brought about a confrontation with Britain over the Venezuelan boundary, but went on to negotiate a treaty providing for the general arbitration of all disputes between the United States and Britain. Although Olney was an enemy of the Sherman Antitrust Act, he saw the need to couple acceptance of big business with strong governmental regulation. Olney also called for the acceptance of organized labor to serve as a countervailing power against the power of big business. The stereotype of Olney as an aggressive, unthinking conservative is corrected by Professor Eggert, who shows that Olney's conservatism did not prevent him from entertaining ideas that ran ahead of the time.