This is the first book to bring together into a coherent whole the fragments of the life and thought of Charles A. Beard, a historian who took active steps to thwart biography by burning his private correspondence. Nore has written about Beard's early life in Indiana, including his family tradi­tions and his formal education. She tells of his experiences in England and at Co­lumbia University as both student and teacher. She delineates his progressivism and his economic approach to consti­tutions, parties, and politics. She chroni­cles his response to war and traces his journeys to the Orient. Other chapters include "History, Civi­lization, and Abundance"; "An Intel­lectual Dairy Farmer's Public Life"; "The Great Depression: Modern Analysis and Victorian Politics"; "Science, Relativity, and Faith"; "Battle for Nonintervention, 1935-1941"; "The Old Isolationist"; and "Lessons of Pearl Harbor." In tracing the intellectual development of this charismatic man of Quaker heri­tage, this man who knew almost from the beginning that authorities outside the in­dividual conscience must be carefully scrutinized, Nore sheds light on the in­tellectual history of the 20th century. Hers is the authoritative biography of the man who continued "to remind Ameri­cans that the achievement of economic and social, as well as political democracy would depend on the quality and quan­tity of individual critical citizenships."