"In the midst of the civil rights struggle, two capable men, each with great passion and conviction, opposed each other in a pivotal governor's race that was to shake North Carolina and change southern politics forever. In that election, Terry Sanford would fashion the winning centrist formula that reinvented southern politics and that still makes winners today.".

"In styling himself as an education candidate with a moderate position on integration and many other issues, Sanford shaped future political strategy for campaigns across Dixie - Jim Hunt's in North Carolina, Jimmy Carter's in Georgia, Bill Clinton's in Arkansas, and Al Gore's in Tennessee.".

"Both Terry Sanford and I. Beverly Lake were Democrats in the one-party South of that era. Yet they were different in almost every other way. Lake, a middle-aged law professor, was committed to segregation. Sanford, an ambitious young politician and lawyer, believed in expanding opportunities for all citizens. Their race was a heated struggle that would bind them together for the rest of their lives.".

"With unparalleled access to both sides and with an objective correspondent's hindsight view, John Drescher has written the story of a campaign that set the winning strategy for many who followed, and the biography of a winning candidate, a governor rated as one of the finest of the twentieth century."--BOOK JACKET.