America First

The America First movement is populism based on the philosophy of Thomas Jefferson, according to Kauffman, an editor for American Enterprise magazine. Here he traces the history of this movement from the birth of the nation up to the 1992 presidential campaign of Ross Perot, who, he claims, galvanized voters sufficiently to convince them that the Democrats and Republicans, ``our two-for-the-price-of-one political parties,'' are united in opposition to populism. Kauffman's treatise should prove to be controversial, no doubt intentionally, because his many villains include presidents Lincoln, Wilson, Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt and Reagan, while among his heroes are Hamlin Garland, Sinclair Lewis and William Fulbright. Kauffman pontificates, ``There is an enormous gulf between those who live in America and those who run it.'' One wonders: Where do they live, those who run our country? (June)