| Book Review | The Michigan Historical Review, 33.1

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| Book Review | The Michigan Historical Review, 33.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Reviews

Dave Dempsey. William G. Milliken: Michigan's Passionate Moderate. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006. Pp. 291. Bibliography. Index. Notes. Photographs. Cloth, $29.95.
It was in 1974 when I first came to Michigan and saw William Milliken on television. Though I knew very little about him, he seemed incredibly decent, considerate, and pragmatic. So, when I received my review copy of Dave Dempsey's recent book on the governor and noticed its subtitle Michigan's Passionate Moderate, I was not surprised. On the book jacket, Dempsey proposes to tell the story "of one of our most enduring political figures." After reading the book one can hope not only that memories of the Milliken approach to politics will indeed endure but also that in some way we could recover in our own time the essence of his moderation and sense of the public good.	1
This book was encouraged if not sponsored by the Michigan Environmental Council. Lana Pollack, president of the council, argues in the foreword we must have a greater understanding of "how the web of politics and cultural values determines the way societies choose to interact with their environment" (p. vii). For Pollack, looking at the long tenure of William Milliken as governor gives a better sense of the balance of public and private political forces that shapes the debate on the environment and molds prevailing policy.	2
Michigan's Passionate Moderate is not a biography, as Dempsey is quick to point out in the preface—it is not a definitive compilation of the complete story. Rather the book looks at both William and Helen Milliken as embodiments of an ideal of public service that for Dempsey has, in recent decades, been lost in an "epoch of vicious, personalized politics" (p. vi). By following aspects of the lives of the Millikens, readers will, Dempsey hopes, gain a better sense of the personal dynamics of decency, responsibility, and compromise that are so important in the long term to the functioning of our democracy. This book then is as much a prescription for the future as it is an examination of the past.	. . .

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