<DIV>In <I>Strom</I>, Jack Bass and Marilyn W. Thompson deliver a remarkable look at the life of a remarkable ? and complicated ? politician. First elected to public office in 1929, Strom Thurmond was a pivotal figure in the nation's politics for more than seven decades particularly when it came to issues of race: the Dixiecrat presidential candidate in 1948, originator of the 1956 "Southern Manifesto" against the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling, holder of the record for a Senate filibuster for his opposition to the 1957 Civil Rights Bill. Yet as a young man Thurmond had secretly fathered a daughter with the family's black maid, and quietly supported her through college and beyond.<br> An intense public examination of Thurmond's legacy began when he left the Senate at age 100, continued when he passed away soon after and only grew when Essie Mae Washington-Williams announced in December 2003 that she was the senator's long-rumored black daughter. <br> Bass and Thompson know Strom better than anyone. They both covered him for years and broke the big stories. In <I>Strom</I>, they tell us a great deal about power and politics in our nation and race's twisted roots in the 20th century South.</div>