Command of Office; How War, Secrecy and Deception Transformed the Presidency from Theodore Roosevelt to George W. Bush
New York, NY: Basic Books, 2004. First edition. First Printing [stated]. Hardcover. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. xiii, [1], 722 p. Illustrations. Notes. Index. Stephen R. Graubard is former editor of Daedalus, the journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and professor emeritus of history at Brown University. He holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University. A history of the remarkable shift of power to the American presidency, told through incisive analyses of the eighteen men who have held the office in the last century. The modern presidency really begins, argues Stephen Graubard, with the assassination of William McKinley and the succession of Teddy Roosevelt. TR's vigorous presidency foretold the expansion of authority under Wilson; the growth of federal government under FDR; and the national security issues that dominated the Cold War. Graubard sees three different "presidencies" over the course of the century, marked by increasing authority; the time of troubles from Kennedy to Carter, in which the disastrous Vietnam War spurred a tendency to secrecy; and the third presidency, defined by Reagan. George W. Bush has inherited a far more powerful office than the one originally envisioned by the Founding Fathers. Graubard has written a masterful history of presidential power--one that anyone concerned with American politics will need to read. Condition: Very good / very good.
Keywords: Dean Acheson, Arms Control, Foreign Policy, Harry Hopkins, Henry Kissinger, Theodore Roosevelt, Tocqueville, Weapons of Mass Destruction, Presidents, Political Campaigns, Woodrow Wilson
ISBN: 9780465027576
[Book #68004]
Price: $45.00