which best characterize the particular quality, in each
case, of the contribution. All other aspects of, say, Ben-
jamin Franklin or Andrew Jackson or Roger Williams are
in these books subordinated to what each had most pe-
culiarly to contribute to the shaping of the American
tradition.

When we speak of the American tradition, we are, of
course, referring to a complex of various and sometimes
opposing traditions, but if there is any single outstanding
American principle, I suppose that it is that of the finding
of unity through multiplicity and diversity. The Ameri-
can tradition, a composite in itself, is analagous to the
United States and the American people, each being a com-
plex of many simples.

Similarly, when we speak of the makers of this tradi-
tion, we are, of course, aware that no ten or twenty or
fifty men, however talented, however able, really made
this tradition. Nevertheless, the individuals we have
chosen as the subjects for these books seem to us to have
been outstandingly important in shaping the way of life
that is our heritage today. Hence, just as we welcome in
the American tradition its superficially strange mixture of
radical idealism and plain horse sense, of a general love
of liberty and a sober sense of social responsibility, of hon-
est conservatism and honest dissidence, so we welcome in
this series such conflicting or disparate figures as Thomas
Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, Roger Williams and
John C. Calhoun, Cotton Mather and John Dewey.

For whom is this series intended? It is our hope and
belief that it is intended for every literate American of
whatever age and description. For we are firmly con-
vinced that the books in this series will leave their read-

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