TRB : Views and perspectives on the Presidency.

For thirty-five years, some of the most eloquent and readable political commen tary to emerge from Washington, DC, has appeared in the New Republic magazine under the by-line "TRB." It is one of Washington's worst-kept secrets that TRB is Richard L. Strout, respected Washington correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor since the administration of War ren G. Harding. Sagacious, funny, deeply aware of history, TRB has cut through the fads and foolishness of eight presidential administrations to reveal the lasting sig nificance of events.

Consequently, it should come as no surprise to the reader that the almost 200 TRB columns here-collected for the first time in book form-are as fresh and stim ulating today as when the first one ap peared in 1943. Spanning nearly four dec ades, to the present, they comprise a superb volume of contemporary history, a veteran observer's account of American politics from World War to Cold War, from Space Age to Era of Limits.

Central to Mr. Strout's concerns is the distinction between "reporting" and "commentary." It was his objective report ing that prompted Nixon aide John Ehr lichman, a Monitor reader, to ask the re porter's advice on what direction the new administration should take; but it was TRB the commentator who replied to his aston ished questioner that the social democracy of Sweden would be a good model.