An Irish Catholic Democrat from Chicago, Edward Fitzsimons Dunne was one of the most consistent champions of the humane liberalism known as progressivism that dominated American politics between the 1890s and the 1920s. A close political associate of William Jennings Bryan, Clarence Darrow, Jane Addams, and Raymond Robins, Dunne has been labeled Chicago's first truly reformist mayor and Illinois's most progressive governor.

At his death, political insiders compared his role in Illinois to that of Woodrow Wilson on the national scene. As chief executive of Illinois from 1913 to 1917, Dunne supported a variety of progressive reforms with far-reaching effects. He favored woman suffrage, argued for expanded state responsibility for overseeing workmen's compensation and teachers' pensions, and initiated large-scale improvements in the state's roads.

Dunne's contribution to progressivism in Illinois, of course, was not limited to his term as governor. In a public career that began with his election as a Cook County circuit court judge in 1892, he always advocated progressive change. As an elected public official, particularly as the mayor of Chicago, Dunne played a unique role in bringing into government the direct influence of Chicago's circles of social activists.

Richard Allen Morton's political biography, therefore, not only highlights Dunne but also illuminates the political dynamics of progressive Illinois.