This can be viewed as a brilliant contribution to history, or a challenging contribution to the coming campaign through its analyses of the men who will feature in it, or a collection of delightful individual profiles. On all scores, from the brief and pungent biographies (Eisenhower, Stevenson, Frankfurter, Lodge etc.) to its exploration of the Oppenheimer affair, there is perceptive wisdom in this book, seasoned with wit and humanity.