William Howard Taft. The Travails of a Progressive Conservative

In this biographical study of the only American ever to have been both President and Chief Justice of the United States, Jonathan Lurie reassesses William Howard Taft´s multiple careers, which culminated in Taft´s election to the presidency in 1908 as the chosen successor to Theodore Roosevelt. By 1912, however, the relationship between Taft and Roosevelt had ruptured. Lurie re-examines the Taft–Roosevelt friendship and concludes that it rested on flimsy ground. He also places Taft in a progressive context, taking Taft´s own self-description as ´a believer in progressive conservatism´ as the starting point. At the end of his biography, Lurie concludes that this label is accurate when applied to Taft.