Almost a quarter century ago, journalist Alan Ehrenhalt set out to describe the nation’s political landscape by looking at the priorities and concerns not of voters but of those who run for office. The result was a book, The United States of Ambition, that’s one of the best, most revelatory accounts I’ve ever read of my country’s political process. I was covering Alabama politics and government for The Birmingham News when the book came out in 1991, and almost everything Ehrenhalt wrote rang true, especially the chapter on Alabama (and it’s always surprising and heartening when a journalist from outside gets it so right on a topic one knows well). I remember being perplexed that the book got only modest attention while E.J. Dionne’s Why Americans Hate Politics, which came out at the same time and was fine but not nearly as interesting as Ehrenhalt’s book, was a big bestseller (clearly, I had a lot to learn about book marketing).