In 1911, when businessman James Rolph first ran for mayor of San Francisco, he promised, "I will be mayor of the whole city, and not the mayor for any particular section." This statement seemed to characterize Rolph's political career. After serving an unprecedented five terms as mayor, he went on to win California's 1930 gubernatorial election. Rolph, however, had severely underestimated the challenges he would be up against as a Depression-era governor. A genuine love of people and desire to help had gotten him as far as the governor's office but could do little to help him solve the new...

During his rise to national prominence, Richard Nixon was forced to confront the political ambitions of fellow Californians Earl Warren, William Knowland and Goodwin Knight, all of whom shared in his dream of becoming president. The simultaneous growth of these four Republican politicians--dubbed the four giants by the regional and national media--led to intense personal rivalries which would affect presidential politics for more than a decade. This book traces Nixon's relationships with each man from 1946, when he was the least well-known of the four, until 1958, when the experienced vice...