The latter third of the 20th Century was a time of fundamental political transition across the South as increasing numbers of voters began to choose Republican candidates over Democrats. Yet in the 1980s and 90s, reform-focused policymaking—from better schools to improved highways to healthcare—in Tennessee flourished. This was the handiwork of moderate leaders of both parties who had a capacity to work together ""across the aisle.""

The Tennessee story, as the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham observes in his foreword to this book, offers striking examples of bipartisan cooperation on many policy fronts - and a mode of governing that provides lessons for America in this current time of partisan stalemate.