Of all the most significant Speakers of the House, the one that has received the least attention from biographers is Nicholas Longworth. That omission has now been corrected by Donald C. Bacon and Anthony M. Champagne’s splendid new book, Nicholas Longworth: The Aristocrat Speaker. It presents not only Longworth’s life but also a portrait of a period of American Politics quite unlike the present—when partisan battle lines were not so rigid and personal ties moderated polarization. A gap in the Congress literature has been filled in brilliantly.