The Isolated Presidency

How powerful is the President of the United States? It is a question that students, scholars, and statesmen of American politics have grappled with since before the Constitution was even ratified. For many scholars, it is a question that can only be answered by considering factors outside the office itself, such as the president’s popularity, political talents, or institutional relationships. In The Isolated Presidency, Jordan T. Cash challenges this prevailing view and recenters the debate over presidential power on the document that serves as the foundation for every presidency: the Constitution itself. To gain a clear view of how the Constitution creates a baseline of authority that is available to all presidents, Cash examines the “isolated presidents”: presidents who were unelected, faced divided government, and were opposed by major factions of their own political parties. Stripped of all external supports, these presidents were left with nothing but their constitutional authority to rely on. Yet despite their disadvantageous circumstances, these presidents were able to achieve major policy successes solely through the use of their constitutional powers. Through the examples of the isolated presidents, Cash illustrates how the Constitution creates an empowering logic within the presidency that orients presidential behavior and grants every president significant power and agency. Moreover, as American politics remains polarized and divided, the isolated presidents provide lessons and examples of what constitutionally derived actions a president can take when confronted with the recurring issues of divided government and political gridlock.

"Beginning with a discussion of how the regime created by the Constitution requires a strong executive, it then moves to note the different attributes that emerge from the presidency's structure. Specifically, energy, secrecy, continuity, a national perspective, and a longer temporal horizon. The rest of the chapter describes how these attributes fit in with the presidency's constitutional duties and powers, providing the means to achieve the functional ends set by the Constitution. The framework for analyzing the relationship between the office's structure, duties, and powers are five presidential roles: chief executive, chief legislator, chief diplomat, commander-in-chief, and chief constitutionalist. Throughout the chapter it is also noted how this logic interacts with the other branches and points out those areas where the logic may have tensions or be ambiguous, to be resolved by political contestation"--

Prisoners of the White House looks at the isolation experienced by presidents of the United States in the White House, a habitat almost guaranteed to keep America's commander in chief far removed from everyday life. The authors look at how this is emerging as one of the most serious dilemmas facing the American presidency. As presidents have become more isolated, the role of the presidential pollster has grown. Ken Walsh has been given exclusive access to the polls and confidential memos received by presidents over the years, and has interviewed presidential pollsters directly to gain their unique perspective. Prisoners of the White House gets inside the bubble and punctures the mythology surrounding the presidency.

PRESIDENT NIXON shows a man alone in a White House ruled by secrets and lies, trying to impose old values at home and new balances of power everywhere in the world. Reeves proves that the Watergate scandal was no abberation in an administration foreshadowed by a series of successful uses of 'national security' to cover coups, burglaries, lies, the abandonment of America's allies - and even murder. Reeves portrays a man of vision and iron will who created, used and was used by a small cast of hard, ambitious men who formed a poisonous circle around their insecure leader. Alone, Nixon challenged and changed the world's political and military balance while also plotting to destroy both the Democratic and Republican parties in an attempt to create secretly a new party of the centre. This account of Nixon's stewardship will stand as the balanced, authoratative portrait of an astonishng president and his ruined presidency.

Barack Obama is the first African American President, but the history of African Americans in the White House long predates him. The building was built by slaves, and African Americans have worked in it ever since, from servants to advisors. In charting the history of African Americans in the White House, Kenneth T. Walsh illuminates the trajectory of racial progress in the US. He looks at Abraham Lincoln and his black seamstress and valet, debates between President Johnson and Martin Luther King over civil rights, and the role of black staff members under Nixon and Reagan. Family of Freedom gives a unique view of US history as seen through the experiences of African Americans in the White House.

Twenty-five years after Richard Nixon's resignation, investigative journalist Bob Woodward examines the legacy of Watergate. Based on hundreds of interviews - both on and off the record - and three years of research of government archives, Woodward's latest book explains in detail how the premier scandal of US history has indelibly altered the shape of American politics and culture - and has limited the power to act of the presidency itself. Bob Woodward's mix of historical perspective and journalistic sleuthing provides a unique perspective on the repercussions of Watergate and proves that it was far more than a passing, embarrassing crisis in American politics: it heralded the beginning of a new period of troubled presidencies. From Ford through to Clinton, presidents have battled public scepticism, a challenging Congress, adversarial press and even special prosecutors in their term in office. Now, a quarter of a century after the scandal emerged, the man who helped expose Watergate shows us the stunning impact of its heritage.

"The Evolving Presidency selects primary sources useful for tracing the development of the presidency and places them in a single reader, making it a vital resource for students and instructors." —Robert Robinson, California State University Fullerton Remind your students that primary sources are an essential part of today′s information-rich age. In Michael Nelson’s Sixth Edition of The Evolving Presidency, 60 documents help to anchor the ever-changing presidency in historical context. Students encounter a range of documents—from speeches and debates to letters, landmark Supreme Court decisions, and even tweets—that demonstrate how the presidency is shaped through both word and deed. 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. New to the Sixth Edition: This edition contains sixty documents, more than in any previous edition, including additions that reflect historically significant recent events, notably Donald Trump’s inaugural address and his employment of Twitter as a form of presidential communication. Two brand-new additions from the early days of Donald Trump’s presidency: The text of his pessimistic and populist inauguration speech, in which he promised a focus on "America first"; A compilation of 68 tweets from one week in July 2017, providing students with a context to analyze his unprecedented use of the social network to directly engage with citizens, colleagues in the government, and even other world leaders.

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.