Beyond the presidential synthesis: reordering political time -- Clio's lost tribe: public policy history since 1978 -- History and political science: together again? -- Rethinking the history of American conservatism -- What political science can learn from the new political history -- The uneasy relationship: democracy, taxation, and state-building since the New Deal -- The forgotten legacy of the New Deal: fiscal conservatism and the Roosevelt administration, 1933-1938 -- "Where is the money coming from?" The reconstruction of Social Security finance -- Paying for Medicare: benefits, budgets, and Wilbur Mills's policy legacy -- Seeds of cynicism: the struggle over campaign finance, 1956-1974 -- Bridging state and society: the origins of 1970s congressional reform -- Without restraint: scandal and politics in America -- Seizing power: conservatives and congress since the 1970s -- How conservatives learned to stop worrying and love presidential power -- Congress and the politics of troop withdrawal, 1966-1973 -- Detente and domestic politics -- Conservatives, carter, and the politics of national security