Jeffersonian Democrats, also konw as Southern conservatives, were once a numerous and common American type. They are seldom heard from any more, but for over 30 years Clyde N. Wilson has been examining American history and current events from just such a viewpoint. Wilson, as historian and columnist Joseph Stromberg writes in the foreward, is "the kind of conservative who is a stalwart defender of federalism and republicanism, and the liberties associated with them. Such conservatives are few and far between these days.... "He is ... one a of a vanishing group of professional historians who do not regard Southern life and history as on dark, Gothic misfortune after another.... "What comes of this is the creative deployment of a Southern persective on American history---one that yields interesting and important insights.... "It is hard to do justice to Wilson's work.... Suffice it to say that there is good, powerful writing here, where an understanding of the value of genuine aristocratic leadership is mixed with the practical wisdom of the plain folk of the South. I have long been waiting for a collection of Wilson's essays and, having seen it, I can say it is well worth careful adn repeated reading."