Leading from the center : why moderates make the best presidents / Gil Troy.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 299-325) and index.

Introduction : Presidents as muscular moderates : a "middle course" for our "common cause" -- 1. Washington's way : "Liberal allowances, mutual forbearances, and temporizing yieldings on all sides" -- 2. Compromisers, zealots, and ciphers : The blessing of parties, the challenge of slavery, and the failure of presidents -- 3. Abraham Lincoln's middle measure ; a cautious politician's "My policy is to have no policy" pragmatism -- 4. Theodore Roosevelt's democratic two-step : the rise of the romantic, nationalist presidency -- 5. Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal : the radical as moderate -- 6. Truman, Eisenhower, and America's bipartisan consensus : building political unity through cultural conformity -- 7. John F. Kennedy and civil rights ; moderation and the challenge of change -- 8. The consensus collapses : Lyndon Johnson and the limits of moderation -- 9. Learning from losers : where Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter went wrong --

10. Ronald Reagan's moderate revolution : resurrecting the center -- 11. Bill Clinton and the perils of triangulation : the need to be muscular a well as moderate -- 12. George W. Bush : imprisoned by conviction? -- Conclusion : Center seeking the twenty-first century : is political moderation possible in an age of excess? -- AcknowIedgments -- A note on sources -- Notes -- Index.