Welcome to Washington -- Prairie roots -- Learning the ropes -- Texans and big dreams -- Race, Rayburn, recession -- Ike and the world -- High hopes -- Airplanes and ideals -- Camelot -- Never young again -- Johnson ascends -- Great Society -- That bitch of a war -- Bring us together -- Playing to win -- Making peace -- The Watergate syndrome -- Saturday night aftermath -- Ford's era of good feelings -- A year of conflict and crisis -- Bicentennial year -- A man from Georgia -- Energy and example -- The road to Camp David -- Coach and the peacemakers -- Elections 1980: hate, fate, and Khomeini -- Emergence of the great communicator -- Reagan's revolution -- Recession, deficits, and ideology -- Glimpses of the world -- Bumpy road to peace -- Central American quagmire -- Speaker! Four big challenges -- Giving peace a chance -- Power: its use and limits -- Epilogue: the kind of America we want