Alan Wolfe is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College. His books include "The Transformation of American Religion: How We Actually Practice Our Faith" (Free Press), "An Intellectual in Public", and "One Nation, After All" (Penguin-Viking).

"Wolfe argues that America's history has been a long struggle between a few Roosevelts and Lincolns who have challenged America to be great, and a swarm of Bushes and McKinleys who aimed low and achieved even less... Nations, like heroes, are made, not born. As Alan Wolfe points out, our greatest presidents have always found the courage to remind us of responsibilities we might otherwise pass by, and tapped the latent greatness that is imprinted in the American character."--Bruce Reed,Washington Monthly "Return to Greatness ranges, despite its brevity, over wide swaths of intellectual terrain, dispensing insights and making novel connections... Wolfe deserves respect for reaffirming the promise of liberalism and for placing hope in the possibility of restoring common dreams."--David Greenberg, American Prospect

• PREFACE vii I The Good and the Great 1 II From Politics to Philosophy 27 III Conservatism's Retreat from Greatness 61 IV Liberalism's Fear of Ambition 117 V Great Once More? 169 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 211 NOTES 213 INDEX 227

Alan Wolfe is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College. His books include "The Transformation of American Religion: How We Actually Practice Our Faith" (Free Press), "An Intellectual in Public", and "One Nation, After All" (Penguin-Viking).

"Wolfe argues that America's history has been a long struggle between a few Roosevelts and Lincolns who have challenged America to be great, and a swarm of Bushes and McKinleys who aimed low and achieved even less... Nations, like heroes, are made, not born. As Alan Wolfe points out, our greatest presidents have always found the courage to remind us of responsibilities we might otherwise pass by, and tapped the latent greatness that is imprinted in the American character."--Bruce Reed,Washington Monthly "Return to Greatness ranges, despite its brevity, over wide swaths of intellectual terrain, dispensing insights and making novel connections... Wolfe deserves respect for reaffirming the promise of liberalism and for placing hope in the possibility of restoring common dreams."--David Greenberg, American Prospect

• PREFACE vii I The Good and the Great 1 II From Politics to Philosophy 27 III Conservatism's Retreat from Greatness 61 IV Liberalism's Fear of Ambition 117 V Great Once More? 169 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 211 NOTES 213 INDEX 227