This is a book about five generations of the Taft family, America’s longest-lived political dynasty but one that, unlike four generations of Adamses, three of Rockefellers and Kennedys, and two each of Oyster Bay and Hyde Park Roosevelts, has not captured the public’s imagination. Yet the impact of the Tafts on the present shape of American society may well be greater than that of any of the other political families. The Tafts’ impact is unappreciated because, thanks to their unsympathetic biographers, William Howard Taft is thought of as a standpatter and fat plutocrat and his son Robert A. Taft as a blind isolationist and opponent of domestic reform.

This long-overdue reconsideration of the Tafts shows them to be far-sighted, fair-minded, and in many ways good guides in dealing with today’s concerns. William Howard Taft served in more significant and varied public offices than any other in his words, he always had his plate up when offices were being handed out. He was a collector of internal revenue, a state prosecutor, a state court trial judge, Solicitor General of the United States, a federal circuit judge, Governor General of the Philippines, Secretary of War, President of the United States, co-chairman of the War Labor Board under President Wilson, and Chief Justice of the United States.
His son Senator Robert A. Taft was a realist, not an isolationist, in foreign policy. He was the leader in repealing the embargo legislation and in allowing Britain to buy arms in the United States during the first two years of World War II. His Taft –Hartley Act still governs American labor law and is the only important modern statute passed over a presidential veto. He was also a champion of civil liberties, and was the only official in all three branches of government to publicly oppose internment of Japanese-Americans. Senator Robert Taft Jr. was the first prominent politician to propose curbing “bracket creep” in the tax code to curb increases in the size of government. Ohio Governor Robert Taft III made himself unpopular with both parties in the Reagan era by fostering fiscal responsibility; he also has a continuing interest in science education.

Public knowledge of the Taft family centers on the lives of President and Chief Justice William Howard Taft and Senate Republican leader Robert A. Taft. In the age of Twitter and the tweet, where most politicians are “foolish, tawdry moths who fly into publicity’s consuming fire,” in Learned Hand’s memorable phrase, it is useful to be reminded of a series of men who shunned personal publicity and glamour and who exerted great influence based on their breadth of knowledge and perceived good character.