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Despite the ambiguities about Helms himself, Link is a clear writer. Even the clarity cannot prevent the lengthy book from seeming tedious at times, because Link repeats the themes of Helms' career beyond reason. (As the book's editor, I probably would have cut 50 pages simply by eliminating such repetition.) It is also irritating that Link never decides whether to refer to his subject as "Jesse" or "Helms." The first-name only/last-name only switchbacks seem to appear with no special significance in mind.

There are plenty of reasons to praise Link, especially considering the goal he set for himself. He mines the media skillfully for research purposes, and in that context it seems incumbent to disclose that Link mentions The News & Observer frequently --partly because it makes sense to quote the newspaper's massive coverage of Helms, partly because Helms frequently castigated the newspaper in general, as well as some of its individual reporters and editors. Link terms The News & Observer Helms' "most consistent critic."

Link provides context for Helms' career about as well as a biographer can. One of the most important contextual passages explains why the biography is recommended for any North Carolinian: "An architect of the emergence of the American right, Helms served as an uncompromising ideologue who helped both to assemble a rhetorical message with wide appeal to ordinary Americans and to fashion a strategy to obtain political power. A majority of North Carolina voters admired Helms' tenacity, and they elected him to the Senate five times ... In the end, the conservative movement was wrapped up in Helms' career, and his life charts the emergence of modern American conservatism."

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