The idea that a radical transformation of the Presidency took place during the FDR administration has become one of the most widely accepted tenets of contemporary scholarship. According to this view, the Constitutional Presidency was a product of the Founders' fear of arbitrary power. Only with the development of a popular extra-Constitutional Presidency did the powerful "modern Presidency" emerge. David K. Nichols argues to the contrary that the "modern Presidency" was not created by FDR. What happened during FDR's administration was a transformation in the size and scope of the national government, rather than a transformation of the Presidency in its relations to the Constitution or the other branches of government. Nichols demonstrates that the essential elements of the modern Presidency have been found throughout our history, although often less obvious in an era where the functions of the national government as a whole were restricted. Claiming that we have failed to fully appreciate the character of the Constitutional Presidency, Nichols shows that the potential for the modern Presidency was created in the Constitution itself. He analyzes three essential aspects of the modern Presidency--the President's role in the budgetary process, the President's role as chief executive, and the War Powers Act--that are logical outgrowths of the decisions made at the Constitutional Convention. Nichols concludes that it is the authors of the American Constitution, not the English or European philosophers, who provide the most satisfactory reconciliation of executive power and limited popular government. It is the authors of the Constitution who created the modern Presidency.

Scandal and sex sell, even in the serious business of presidential news coverage. The media deference shown to Kennedy and the scrutiny applied to Clinton illustrate the changed relation between the two, and bookend this pertinent, updated 1998 Choice Outstanding Academic Book award-winner. Liebovich tackles misconceptions about the media's role in politics; how chief executives cooperate with and manipulate the press as it suits their needs; and how ratings pressures have bent coverage of elections and the Executive Branch for the worse. Well-written, thorough, and the only book to explore the changing relation between the press and the presidency in the later twentieth century, students and researchers alike will profit from reading this work written by one of America's leading scholars in the field. For students interested in communications, history, or contemporary American politics, it is an unparalleled administration-by-administration introduction to the complex and intertwined workings of two of the most powerful and influential forces at work in American politics today. It furthermore provides researchers with a solid historical explanation of how both presidential politics and political news coverage have come to be popularly reviled and discounted.

This history of presidential studies surveys the views of leading thinkers and scholars about the constitutional powers of the highest office in the land from the founding to the present.

A full understanding of the institution of the American presidency requires us to examine how it developed from the founding to the present. This developmental lens, analyzing how historical turns have shaped the modern institution, allows for a richer, more nuanced understanding. The Development of the American Presidency pays great attention to that historical weight but is organized by the topics and concepts relevant to political science, with the constitutional origins and political development of the presidency its central focus. Through comprehensive and in-depth coverage, Richard Ellis looks at how the presidency has evolved in relation to the public, to Congress, to the executive branch, and to the law, showing at every step how different aspects of the presidency have followed distinct trajectories of change. Each chapter promotes active learning, beginning with a narrative account of some illustrative puzzle that brings to life a central concept. A wealth of photos, figures, and tables allow for the visual presentations of concepts. New to the Third Edition Analysis of the 2016 election, including the role of the Electoral College and implications of Trump’s nomination for the "party decides" thesis; Exploration of Trump’s Twitter presidency and the effectiveness of using social media to bypass the Washington press corps; In-depth coverage of the development of twentieth-century president–press relations, including a new section on broadcasting the presidency that explores the development of the presidential press conference and presidents’ use of radio and television; Study of national security policy in the Obama administration, with a special focus on the targeted killing of American citizens and Obama’s legacy for presidential war powers; Examination of the original understanding and contemporary relevance of impeachment as well as updated discussion of the president’s pardon power; Discussion of recent developments in the legislative and legal realms, including Trump’s first hundred days, the Garland–Gorsuch episode, and abolition of the filibuster for Supreme Court appointments; Preliminary assessment of Trump’s place in historical time.

"The Modern American Presidency" is a lively, interpretive synthesis of 20th century leaders, filled with intriguing insights into how the presidency has evolved as America rose to prominence on the world stage. Gould traces the decline of the party system and the increasing importance of the media, resulting in the rise of the president as celebrity. 36 photos.

This is the first book to survey the intellectual history of presidential scholarship from the Founding to the late 20th century. Reviewing the work of over sixty thinkers, including Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, Woodrow Wilson, Richard Neustadt, James McGregor Burns, and Theodore Lowi, the authors identify six central questions, the answers to which can help form a theory of presidential power: • Does presidential power derive from the prerogatives of office or from incumbency?• Does presidential influence depend upon force of personality, rhetorical leadership, or partisanship?• Does presidential leadership depend upon historical context or is regime-building manifested through political, institutional, and constitutional developments?• Does presidential leadership vary between domestic and foreign affairs?• Does the president actively or passively engage the legislative process and promote a policy agenda?• Does the organization of the executive branch service presidential leadership? Arguing that three paradigms have dominated the history of presidential scholarship—Hamiltonianism, Jeffersonianism, and Progressivism—the authors conclude that today's understanding of the presidency is characterized by a "new realism and old idealism." This book will appeal to students and scholars as well as to general readers with an interest in the American presidency.

There is no more powerful symbol in American political life than the presidency, and the image of presidential power has had no less profound an impact on American fiction. A Pinnacle of Feeling is the first book to examine twentieth-century literature's deep fascination with the modern presidency and with the ideas about the relationship between state power and democracy that underwrote the rise of presidential authority. Sean McCann challenges prevailing critical interpretations through revelatory new readings of major writers, including Richard Wright, Gertrude Stein, Henry Roth, Zora Neale Hurston, Saul Bellow, Ralph Ellison, Norman Mailer, Don Delillo, and Philip Roth. He argues that these writers not only represented or satirized presidents, but echoed political thinkers who cast the chief executive as the agent of the sovereign will of the American people. They viewed the president as ideally a national redeemer, and they took that ideal as a model and rival for their own work. A Pinnacle of Feeling illuminates the fundamental concern with democratic sovereignty that informs the most innovative literary works of the twentieth century, and shows how these works helped redefine and elevate the role of executive power in American culture.

How institutions shape the American presidency This incisive undergraduate textbook emphasizes the institutional sources of presidential power and executive governance, enabling students to think more clearly and systematically about the American presidency at a time when media coverage of the White House is awash in anecdotes and personalities. William Howell offers unparalleled perspective on the world’s most powerful office, from its original design in the Constitution to its historical growth over time; its elections and transitions to governance; its interactions with Congress, the courts, and the federal bureaucracy; and its persistent efforts to shape public policy. Comprehensive in scope and rooted in the latest scholarship, The American Presidency is the perfect guide for studying the presidency at a time of acute partisan polarization and popular anxiety about the health and well-being of the republic. Focuses on the institutional structures that presidents must navigate, the incentives and opportunities that drive them, and the constraints they routinely confront Shows how legislators, judges, bureaucrats, the media, and the broader public shape the contours and limits of presidential power Encourages students to view the institutional presidency as not just an object of study but a way of thinking about executive politics Highlights the lasting effects of important historical moments on the institutional presidency Enables students to grapple with enduring themes of power, rules, norms, and organization that undergird democracy

The Presidency and the Political System showcases the best of presidential studies and research with top-notch presidency scholars writing specifically for an undergraduate audience. Michael Nelson rigorously edits each contribution to present a set of analytical yet accessible chapters and offers contextual headnotes introducing each essay. Chapters represent the full range of topics, institutions, and issues relevant to understanding the American presidency: covering approaches to studying the presidency, elements of presidential power, presidential selection, presidents and politics, and presidents and government. This Twelfth Edition fully incorporates coverage of the Trump administration.

Washington’s Government shows how George Washington’s administration—the subject of remarkably little previous study—was both more dynamic and more uncertain than previously thought. Rather than simply following a blueprint laid out by the Constitution, Washington and his advisors constructed over time a series of possible mechanisms for doing the nation’s business. The results were successful in some cases, disastrous in others. Yet at the end of Washington’s second term, there was no denying that the federal government had achieved remarkable results. As Americans debate the nature of good national governance two and a half centuries after the founding, this volume’s insights appear timelier than ever. Contributors Lindsay M. Chervinsky, Iona College * Gautham Rao, American University * Kate Elizabeth Brown, Huntington University * Stephen J. Rockwell, St. Joseph’s College * Andrew J. B. Fagal, Princeton University, * Daniel Hulsebosch, New York University * Rosemarie Zagarri, George Mason University