Basic Interests: The Importance of Groups in Politics and in Political Science by Frank R. Baumgartner and Beth L. Leech

doned organized labor. He also tolerated racial discrimination in government, in contrast to his successor, Harry Truman. Instead of offering a nuanced account of FDR’s political strategy, the book offers an apologia. Bold Relief offers a useful and often insightful overview of the origin of and limits to U.S. social policy. But by taking the reformist policies of the late 1930s as the benchmark for U.S. social policy, the author marginalizes the relevance of his own analysis for a broader understanding of U.S. social policy.