Shlaes also tells the absorbing story of the fight between Wendell Willkie--the true hero of this book--and David Lilienthal.

FORBES: Fact and Comment

The most effective leaders, such as David Lilienthal at the Tennessee Valley Authority in the 1930s or James Webb at NASA in the 1960s, were given some budgetary cover from Congress so they could engage in long-term planning that improved the infrastructure of rural areas or allowed us to make huge advances in our understanding of space.

CNN: Stopgap budgeting cripples government