The Roots of Modern Conservatism: Dewey, Taft, and the Battle for the Soul of the Republican Party

Between 1944 and 1953, a power struggle emerged between New York governor Thomas Dewey and U.S. senator Robert Taft of Ohio that threatened to split the Republican Party. In The Roots of Modern Conservatism, Michael Bowen reveals how this two-man battle for control of the GOP — and the Republican presidential nomination — escalated into a divide of ideology that ultimately determined the party’s political identity.

Initially, Bowen argues, the separate Dewey and Taft factions endorsed fairly...