"As a journalist, orator, politician, historian, and diplomat, Bowers defended democracy locally, nationally, and internationally. Through his writings and as editor for newspapers in Indianapolis, Terre Haute, Fort Wayne, and New York, Bowers supported liberal reform. Nationally, Bowers was an outspoken proponent of William Jennings Bryan's populist ideas, Woodrow Wilson's progressivism, and Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal.

Internationally, he served six years as ambassador to Spain followed by fourteen years as ambassador to Chile.".

"With best-sellers such as Jefferson and Hamilton: The Struggle for Democracy in America (1925) and The Tragic Era: The Revolution after Lincoln (1929), Bowers "renewed the definition of American Politics." His democratic writings, speeches, and talks won the respect of national and international leaders, such as Franklin D. Roosevelt and Manuel Azana, and authors such as Theodore Dreiser and Ernest Hemingway."--BOOK JACKET.