Executive Branch Books - Page 12

Minority Victory: Gilded Age Politics and the Front Porch Campaign of 1888 (American Presidential Elections)

Charles W. Calhoun

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

During the run-up to the 1888 presidential election, Americans flocked to party rallies, marched in endless parades, and otherwise participated zealously in the political process. Although they faced a choice between two uncharismatic candidates--Republican challenger Benjamin Harrison and Democratic incumbent Grover Cleveland--voters took intense interest in the issues they espoused. And though Harrison became one of only four candidates to win the presidency while losing the popular vote, the lasting significance of the election was its foreshadowing of both the modern campaign and the modern presidency.

Charles W. Calhoun shows how this presidential contest not only exemplified Gilded Age politics but also marked a major shift from divisive sectional rhetoric to an emphasis on voters' economic concerns. Calhoun first explores Cleveland's rise to the presidency and explains why he turned to economic issues, especially tariff reduction, in framing his bid for reelection. He then provides a detailed analysis of the raucous Republican national convention and describes Harrison's effective front porch campaign, in which he proclaimed his views almost daily to visiting voters and reporters. Calhoun also explores the role of party organizations, business interests, labor, women, African Americans, and third parties in the campaign; discusses alleged fraud in the election; and analyzes the Democrats' suppression of black votes in the South.

The 1888 campaign marked an important phase in the evolution of American political culture and augured significant innovations in American politics and governance. The Republicans' performance, in particular, reflected the party's future winning strategies: emphasis on economic development, personal participation by the presidential candidate, a well-financed organization, and coordination with beneficiaries of the party's agenda.

Harrison set important precedents for campaigning and then, once in office, fashioned new leadership strategies and governing techniques--emphasizing legislative intervention, extensive travel, and a focus on foreign affairs--that would become the stock-in-trade of later presidents. His Republican successors built upon these transformations, making the GOP the majority party for a generation and putting the presidency at the center of American governance--where it has remained ever since.

This book is part of the American Presidential Elections series.

Presidential Trivia

Richard Lederer

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

lots of fun 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

this book, presidential trivia, is a quick read, easy to pick up and put down. it's choke full of tid bits that aren't commonly known about many of our presidents. pieces of it i found really touching (e.g., the guy in the electoral college voted against monroe where everybody else voted for him ONLY because he felt that Washington ought to be the only president unanimously elected). i also liked a quip on lincoln's height, at 6'3 3/4", once, when asked about his height, he said that he was "tall enough to touch the ground". great bedside reading or coffeetable reading. i really enjoyed it! while i'm no presidential scholar, the data presented by lederer appear consistent with the few books that i've read. nice job!

Editorial Review:

From the beloved Richard Lederer comes another kind of trivia book-Presidential Trivia. In it you'll find all the details about the lives of the United States presidents. It answers such questions as: who was the first president to be assassinated; who was the first president to be born an American citizen; and, who was the first to be impeached. It also answers less important but certainly interesting questions such as: who was our fattest president; our tallest; who played golf; and, who played poker. Filled with games, anagrams, poems, speeches, and an abundance of tidbits, details, and fascinating facts, this book is perfect for the novice to the history buff. From politics and policy to presidential nicknames and White House pets, "Presidential Trivia" has everything you ever wanted to know about our presidents, and then some.

The American Presidency

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Thought-Provoking, Perhaps Controversial Interpretations 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

For non-scholars such as I, Brinkley and Dyer have assembled and edited generally outstanding essays written by eminent academics, each of whom focuses her or his attention on one of the 43 presidents of the United States. They are indeed "concise and thorough accounts," as Brinkley and Dyer suggest in their Preface, but they also attempt to do more than that. "They are deliberately and frankly interpretative, offering assessments of the individual men and of both great and small events. They are also, in varying degrees, contextual, situating presidents in their time and suggesting how the character of American society and culture shaped the character of presidential performance."

No doubt each reader will take issue with at least some of the interpretations such as Herbert Sloan's re George Washington, Michael McGerr's re Theodore Roosevelt, and Matthew Dickinson's re Bill Clinton. Fair enough. Lively, sometimes hostile disagreements still continue concerning Thomas Jefferson almost 180 years after his death. Of greatest interest to me are the chapters devoted to presidents about whom, previously, I knew little (if anything). For example, Martin Van Buren, Franklin Pierce, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, and Warren G. Harding. Being a compulsive highlighter of key passages in the books I read, I also enjoyed comparing and contrasting revealing information about various presidents in terms of the process by which they were elected, the challenges each faced upon taking office, how they responded to those challenges, and what the presidential historians now view (in retrospect) as their most significant contributions.

Those who share my high regard for this volume are urged to check out Sidney M. Milkis and Michael Nelson's The American Presidency: Origins and Development, 1776-2000, Thomas E. Cronin and Michael A. Genovese's The Paradoxes of the American Presidency, Forrest McDonald's The American Presidency: An Intellectual History, and James Taranto and Leonard Leo's Presidential Leadership: Rating the Best and the Worst in the White House.

Editorial Review:

The most up-to-date, incisive, and accessible reference on the American
presidency, with essays by the nation's leading historians.

An indispensable resource for the curious reader and the serious
historian alike, The American Presidency showcases some of the most provocative interpretive history being written today. This rich narrative history
sheds light on the hubris, struggles, and brilliance of our nation's leaders.
Coupling vivid writing with unparalleled scholarship, these insightful
essays from well-known historians cover every presidency from the first
through the forty-third.

Dear Mr. President: Letters to the Oval Office from the Files of the National Archives

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Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

"The letters provide a nostalgic timeline of American history told through the words and feelings of Americans, from regular folks to kings." —Star Gazette, Elmira, NY, Dec. '05

"There are more than 80 letters, reflecting both our history and our very American sense that when we speak, our president should listen." —The Arizona Republic, Dec. '05

Drawn from the extensive holdings of the National Archives—which includes all of the Presidential libraries—these carefully chosen letters remind us that ours is a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people," which entitles us to make our views known to our leaders. Most of the letters come from working citizens; others were written by notable figures: John Glenn, Elvis Presley, Walt Disney, Ho Chi Minh, Nikita Kruschev, Upton Sinclair, John Steinbeck, Robert Kennedy, and many more.

Grouped thematically, the sections cover such topics as civil rights, the Cold War, physical fitness, joblessness, World War II, western expansion, and the space race. An introduction by NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams and essays by Dwight Young evoke the tenor of the times in which the letters were written. A wonderful gift book for any American, Dear Mr. President is both enlightening and fun to read.

Memo to a New President: The Art and Science of Presidential Leadership

Michael A. Genovese

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Editorial Review:

So you've gotten yourself elected president--now what? Help is here in the form of an imaginary memo from your former professor, who integrates the works of the great thinkers (Aristotle, Plato, Machiavelli, etc.) with contemporary scholarship to address the strengths, limitations, and possibilities of presidential leadership. Michael A. Genovese, a highly esteemed presidential scholar, culls numerous nuggets of wisdom about presidential leadership, including past presidents, condensing detailed and academically grounded insights into an engaging and entertaining read. All essential topics are covered, including: presidential character and personality; political institutions and opportunities; power versus leadership; and sources of and limits to presidential power. In-depth coverage of crisis management and wartime decision-making are unique strengths of the book.
Chapters are brief and concise, making Memo to a New President far more interesting than supplements such as case studies or documents. Genovese's presentation allows readers to identify with the various constraints on America's chief executive and gives them an opportunity to apply their knowledge and preconceptions (often misconceptions) to the political realities that presidents routinely face. Students are left to grapple with a central question of the book: Is an effective presidency possible without undermining the essence of a democratic republic?

God in the White House: A History: How Faith Shaped the Presidency from John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush

Randall Balmer

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Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 20th Century -> 1945 - Present

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Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

How did we go from John F. Kennedy declaring that religion should play no role in the elections to Bush saying, "I believe that God wants me to be president"?

Historian Randall Balmer takes us on a tour of presidential religiosity in the last half of the twentieth century—from Kennedy's 1960 speech that proposed an almost absolute wall between American political and religious life to the soft religiosity of Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society; from Richard Nixon's manipulation of religion to fit his own needs to Gerald Ford's quiet stoicism; from Jimmy Carter's introduction of evangelicalism into the mainstream to Ronald Reagan's co-option of the same group; from Bill Clinton's covert way of turning religion into a non-issue to George W. Bush's overt Christian messages, Balmer reveals the role religion has played in the personal and political lives of these American presidents.

Americans were once content to disregard religion as a criterion for voting, as in most of the modern presidential elections before Jimmy Carter.But today's voters have come to expect candidates to fully disclose their religious views and to deeply illustrate their personal relationship to the Almighty. God in the White House explores the paradox of Americans' expectation that presidents should simultaneously trumpet their religious views and relationship to God while supporting the separation of church and state. Balmer tells the story of the politicization of religion in the last half of the twentieth century, as well as the "religionization" of our politics. He reflects on the implications of this shift, which have reverberated in both our religious and political worlds, and offers a new lens through which to see not only these extraordinary individuals, but also our current political situation.

Veeps: Profiles in Insignificance

Bill Kelter, Wayne Shellabarger

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Frigging Hysterical 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I ordered VEEPS after stumbling across its blog, [...] (which I found hilarious). It arrived in the mail yesterday, I cracked it open after dinner, and read it non stop through the end, long past my usual bedtime. The whole time my wife was looking at me like I was a lunatic as I laughed like a hyena, stopping to read her excerpts every few minutes until she told me to knock it off.

The book is absolutely beautiful (awesome hardcover - and that's not a dust cover), the illustrations are first-rate, and the content is as informative as it is hilarious.

I literally learned something on every page. Who knew that one of our Veeps had chopped off somebody's arm?

Anyhow, I highly recommend this book to history buffs, fans of great comedy writing, or just about anybody. It's my last-minute nominee for Book of the Year.

Editorial Review:

It's a tired but true cliche that every American Vice President is just a heartbeat away from the most powerful job in the world - a job they've often never really interviewed for. Who are these people? Over more than 200 years, the American voters have sent a platoon of rogues, cowards, drunks, featherweights, doddering geriatrics, bigots, and atrocious spellers to Washington D.C. to sit one bullet, cerebral hemorrhage, or case of pneumonia away from the highest office in the land. Veeps tells the sordid, head-scratching, perversely-entertaining stories of these men we've chosen to ride shotgun in the biggest rig in democracy, without ever seriously considering the possibility that they might have to take the wheel.

Letters to the Next President: What We Can Do About the Real, 2008 Election

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Editorial Review:

This 2008 election edition reopens today's critical issues in public education. Once again speaking to the next president, this stellar collection of more than thirty letters speaks to the future of American students and the need for an educated and engaged citizenry. Top education experts, elected officials, business and community leaders, teachers, principals, students, and parents discuss the dangerous shortcomings of current state and federal policies and offer suggestions for what can be done about it.

Table of Contents:

Note on the 2008 Election Edition
Foreword: Where Do We Start to Sweep?, Bill Cosby
Acknowledgments
Introduction, Carl Glickman


Part One
Schools for All

Journey to a New Life, Rosa Fernández
Helping Me to Raise My Hand, Vance Rawles
Creating Schools We Can Trust, Deborah Meier
If We Had the Will to See It Happen, Asa G. Hilliard III
Getting Our Responsibilities Right, Sophie Sa
It s Past Time to Fund What We Mandate, Former U.S. Senator Jim Jeffords
Financing America s Future How Money Counts, William J. Mathis
Why We Need Public Education, John I. Goodlad


Part Two
Learning for All

Broken Roads and the Great Mother Earth, Derrick Attakai, Evalena Joey, Britta Mitchell, Melody Riggs, & Manuel Thompson with Mark Sorensen
In Struggle and Hope, Lisa Delpit
Nine Million Voices, Rachel Tompkins
How Our High School Makes a Difference, George Wood
Putting the Arts Back in America s ABC's, Reynold Levy
When Does $1.00 Equal $7.00?, Lilian Katz
What They Do With the Other 73 Percent of Their Time, Louis B. Casagrande


Part Three
Teaching for All

My Students, My School, Karen Hale Hankins
Teaching Darius to Dream, Jacqueline Jordan Irvine
Why We Continue to Stay, Jane Ross
The Gap Between What We Say and What We Do, Arturo Pacheco
Revolving Doors and Leaky Buckets, Richard Ingersoll


Part Four
Standards for All

Choking the Life Out of Classrooms, Sylvia Bruni
What My Students Need to Know, Edward C. Montgomery
The No-Win Accountability Game, W. James Popham
Going Beyond the Slogans and Rhetoric, Pedro Noguera
. . . And Equal Education for All, Jeannie Oakes & Martin Lipton
A President Who Gets It, Thomas Sobol


Part Five
Education for All

The Civic Mission of Schools, U.S. Senator John Glenn & Leslie F. Hergert
What We All Want for Each of Our Children, Theodore R. Sizer
Postcards from America, Michelle Fine, April Burns, & María Elena Torre
Learning to Come Alive, Maxine Greene
Voices Closest to the Ones We Love, Ken Rolling & Sandra Halladey
A Nation of Learners, Pam Solo
Crafting Legislation, Elizabeth DeBray-Pelot
Conclusion: Schools That Work for All Children, Linda Darling-Hammond
Organizations for Parents, Educators, and Activists
Organizational Statement on the No Child Left Behind Act

The Modern Presidency

James P. Pfiffner

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Outstanding and Fascinating Modern Presidency Reading 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 6 people found this review helpful.

The material has been thoroughly revised and updated to take account of developments in exproring new ideas of modern presidency. It provides a convenient and informative work of reference for those who studying the presidency and practitioners. Through this book, James P.Pfiffner has created an outstanding reading material and absolutely fascinating though on modern presidency reference.

Editorial Review:

THE MODERN PRESIDENCY, Fifth Edition, is a concise, accessible and sophisticated text on the presidency. Case studies-a major strength of this short text-illustrate important aspects of presidential action and decision-making. Written by a top scholar on the presidency, and thoroughly updated through 2006 to include the presidency of George W. Bush, the text deals not only with presidents as individuals, but also with the large institutions that make up the modern presidency.

Memo to the President: How We Can Restore America's Reputation and Leadership

Madeleine Albright

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Editorial Review:

The next president will face the daunting task of repairing America's core relationships and tarnished credibility after the damage caused during the past eight years. In Memo to the President, former secretary of state Madeleine Albright offers provocative ideas about how to confront the myriad challenges awaiting our newly elected commander-in-chief. Secretary Albright's advice is candid and seasoned with humor and stories from her years in office, blending lessons from the past with forward-looking suggestions about how to make full use of presidential power without repeating the excesses of the Bush administration and how to revive America's commitment to its founding ideals.