The Secret Coalition: Ike, LBJ, and the Search for a Middle Way in the 1950s

The politics of the 1950s revolved around two primary leaders, one Republican and one Democrat—both moderate, and both willing to compromise to move the nation forward.

The Republican leader was President Dwight Eisenhower. His two administrations changed American politics. Ike’s desire to be president of all the people, to run his administration down the middle of the road, to be a “modern” Republican, set the stage for what the Republican Party would be for decades to come. His politics of...