In recent years, a number of scholars (including, truth to tell, this reviewer) have sought to rethink and revise the reputation of William Howard Taft. Most, if not all, of us have been cited in Burns’ magisterial study. Funded in part by the ultra-conservative Charles Koch Foundation, his book develops the thesis that “Taft’s commitment to both the Constitution and progressivism” drove his political career, as well as his later tenure on the United States Supreme Court (1921–1930). Burns concludes that “by melding progressive policy preferences with [constitutional] originalism,” Taft managed to make his fundamental conservatism compatible with progressivism, arguing, in fact, that Taft “never faltered in his commitment to progressivism” (5–7). Occasionally provocative and frequently perceptive, the Burns study, all told, is not totally persuasive.
Burns has tracked the still-remarkable expanse of Taft’s career with impressive thoroughness. Moreover, although at various intervals during his life, Taft undoubtedly demonstrated what...