The Evolving Presidency Landmark Documents 1787 2008 3rd Edition

This fascinating collection of 50 primary source documents offers a compact yet broad-based look at the development of the executive office. Judicious editing and contextual headnotes give students a look at the personalities and ideas that have shaped the institution, as well as insight into significant cases and events that have played pivotal roles in American political history. Based on extensive feedback from users, the third edition includes new selections that feature both historical and recent pieces&BAD:mdash;from FDR&BAD:rsquo;s court-packing speech to Hamdan v. Rumsfeld case&BAD:mdash;dramatically showing students how presidents chart U.S. history.

In the Fifth Edition of The Evolving Presidency, more than 50 documents—speeches, debates, letters and Supreme Court decisions—show readers the ways that presidents have shaped U.S. history through both word and deed. Editor Michael Nelson carefully crafts a headnote for each selection to place it in historical context and convey the document’s significance during its own time as well as its lasting effects on the office of the presidency. This edition offers eight all-new selections including James Madison’s Notes of the Federal Convention, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order on Japanese-American Internment, and Barack Obama’s 2015 State of the Union Address.

Remind your students that primary sources are an essential part of today's information rich age. With Michael Nelson’s fourth edition of The Evolving Presidency, more than 50 documents help to anchor the ever-changing presidency in historical context. Seeing how presidents shape U.S. history through both word and deed, students encounter a range of documents- from speeches and debates to letters and landmark Supreme Court decisions. Every selection has its own headnote that is carefully crafted to convey the significance of the document during its own time and its lasting effects on the office of the presidency. Documents new to this edition: • Memo from Walter F. Mondale to Jimmy Carter Proposing the Modern Vice Presidency (1976) • Bush v. Gore (2000) • Barack Obama’s Campaign Speech on Race in America (2008) • Barack Obama’s Health Care Address (2009)

The Evolving Presidency is not a collection of essays, but a treasury of the most important documents about the highest office in the land. It is also an affordable alternative to the usual high-priced collections of primary documents. Arranged in chronological order, these 43 documents tell a rich and fascinating story of how much about the presidency has changed across more than two centuries -- and about how much has remained the same since the office was first established. For students and scholars, The Evolving Presidency is the perfect volume for research and directed reading. For interested citizens everywhere, the book is a fascinating collection of priceless documents that reveal the origins and development of our highest office. Headnotes explain the history and significance of each document. And the convenient subject guide sorts documents by topic and helps readers trace their specific issues and topics of interest.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In this brilliant biography, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Jon Meacham chronicles the life of George Herbert Walker Bush. NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST AND ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • Time • NPR • St. Louis Post-Dispatch Drawing on President Bush’s personal diaries, on the diaries of his wife, Barbara, and on extraordinary access to the forty-first president and his family, Meacham paints an intimate and surprising portrait of an intensely private man who led the nation through tumultuous times. From the Oval Office to Camp David, from his study in the private quarters of the White House to Air Force One, from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the first Gulf War to the end of Communism, Destiny and Power charts the thoughts, decisions, and emotions of a modern president who may have been the last of his kind. This is the human story of a man who was, like the nation he led, at once noble and flawed. His was one of the great American lives. Born into a loving, privileged, and competitive family, Bush joined the navy on his eighteenth birthday and at age twenty was shot down on a combat mission over the Pacific. He married young, started a family, and resisted pressure to go to Wall Street, striking out for the adventurous world of Texas oil. Over the course of three decades, Bush would rise from the chairmanship of his county Republican Party to serve as congressman, ambassador to the United Nations, head of the Republican National Committee, envoy to China, director of Central Intelligence, vice president under Ronald Reagan, and, finally, president of the United States. In retirement he became the first president since John Adams to see his son win the ultimate prize in American politics. With access not only to the Bush diaries but, through extensive interviews, to the former president himself, Meacham presents Bush’s candid assessments of many of the critical figures of the age, ranging from Richard Nixon to Nancy Reagan; Mao to Mikhail Gorbachev; Dick Cheney to Donald Rumsfeld; Henry Kissinger to Bill Clinton. Here is high politics as it really is but as we rarely see it. From the Pacific to the presidency, Destiny and Power charts the vicissitudes of the life of this quietly compelling American original. Meacham sheds new light on the rise of the right wing in the Republican Party, a shift that signaled the beginning of the end of the center in American politics. Destiny and Power is an affecting portrait of a man who, driven by destiny and by duty, forever sought, ultimately, to put the country first. Praise for Destiny and Power “Should be required reading—if not for every presidential candidate, then for every president-elect.”—The Washington Post “Reflects the qualities of both subject and biographer: judicious, balanced, deliberative, with a deep appreciation of history and the personalities who shape it.”—The New York Times Book Review “A fascinating biography of the forty-first president.”—The Dallas Morning News

For use in either historically- or topically-organized courses, this collection of fifty-one primary source documents is an ideal supplement. Taken together, this varied collection of documents offers a compact yet broad-based look at the development of the presidency and give students a look at important personalities and pivotal events in U. S. presidential history.

This two-volume set provides a chronological view of the foreign policy/national security doctrines of key American presidents from Washington to Obama, framed by commentary on the historical context for each, discussions of major themes, and examinations of the lasting impact of these policies. The National Security Doctrines of the American Presidency: How They Shape our Present and Future provides a chronological examination of the foreign policy and national security doctrines of key American presidents from Washington to Obama, covering everything from our missionary zeal and our pursuit of open navigation of the seas, to our involvement in the ongoing political and military conflicts in the Middle East. It addresses the multiple sources behind the doctrines: real, rhetorical, and ideological. Arranged chronologically, each chapter offers commentary on the historical evolution of these doctrines, identifies the major themes, and highlights unique revelations. Ideal for universities, colleges, libraries, academics, classroom teachers, policy makers, and the educated electorate, this two-volume set represents a compendium of national security doctrines that explains how these first doctrines have constrained, restrained, and guided every American president regardless of party, providing comprehensive information that cannot be found in any other single source. Further, the work presents the reader with examples and explanations of precisely how these doctrines from long ago as well as those from recent history directly affect our present and future.

The American Presidency examines the constitutional foundation of the executive office and the social, economic, political, and international forces that have reshaped it along with the influence individual presidents have had. Authors Sidney Milkis and Michael Nelson look at each presidency broadly, focusing on how individual presidents have sought to navigate the complex and ever-changing terrain of the executive office and revealing the major developments that launched a modern presidency at the dawn of the twentieth century. By connecting presidential conduct to the defining eras of American history and the larger context of politics and government in the United States, this award-winning book offers perspective and insight on the limitations and possibilities of presidential power. In this Seventh Edition, marking the 25th anniversary of The American Presidency’s publication, the authors add new scholarship to every chapter, reexamine the end of George W. Bush’s tenure, assess President Obama’s first term in office, and explore Obama’s second term.