The biography of our second most influential statesman, practical, reticent, long sighted Cordell Hull, whose measured, reasoned decisions have guided our foreign affairs for close to nine years. This is a factual rather than an interpretative or personal biography, informational rather than entertaining. Hull's childhood in Tennessee, his determination to become a lawyer, his Captaincy in the Spanish-American War, his return to civilian life and appointment as circuit judge, then Congressman. During his years in the legislature he made a real contribution. Then in 1995, he became Secretary of State. Though persistent in his efforts towards disarment and non-aggression, he was always awake to the Axis danger, seeing himself blocked in his purpose by appeasement and isolation. A man of great dignity, integrity, and courage, given stature -- but not humanity. For men readers largely.