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The American Presidency: An Intellectual History, by Forrest McDonald
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Jefferson Lecturer and Pulitzer Prize finalist Forrest McDonald is widely recognized as one of our most respected and challenging historians of the Constitution. He has been called brilliant, provocative, controversial, passionate, pugnacious, and crafty in intellectual combat. Whatever the label, he remains unsurpassed as a commentator on the American founding.
Novus Ordo Seclorum, his best-known work, was hailed as "magisterial," "a tour-de-force," "the American history book of the decade," "the best single book on the origins of the U.S. Constitution," and was featured on Bill Moyers's highly praised PBS series In Search of the Constitution. McDonald now applies his considerable talents to a study of another venerable institution-the American presidency.
Writing at the height of his powers as an intellectual historian, McDonald explores how and why the presidency has evolved into such a complex and powerful institution, unlike any other in the world. Scores of republics have come into existence during the last two centuries and many have adopted constitutions similar to our own. But, as McDonald persuasively shows, the American presidency is unique-no other nation has a leadership position that combines the seemingly incongruous roles of ceremonial head of state and chief executive magistrate.
Lacking an acceptable role model, McDonald explains, the founding fathers constructed their idea of the presidency from sources as diverse as the Bible, Machiavelli, John Locke, the Ancient Greeks and Romans, the laws of England, and the early colonial and state government experiences. So many influences, he suggests, guaranteed a substantial degree of persistent ambiguity and contradiction in the office.
McDonald chronicles the presidency's creation, implementation, and evolution and explains why it's still working today despite its many perceived afflictions. Along the way, he provides trenchant commentary upon the Constitutional Convention, ratification debates, presidencies of Washington and Jefferson, presidential administration and leadership, presidential-congressional conflicts, the president as chief architect of foreign policy, and the president as myth and symbol. He also analyzes the enormous gap between what we've come to expect of presidents and what they can reasonably hope to accomplish.
Ambitious, comprehensive, and engaging, this is the best single-volume study of an institution that has become troubled and somewhat troublesome yet, in McDonald's words, "has been responsible for less harm and more good than perhaps any other secular institution in history." It will make a fine and necessary companion for understanding the presidency as it moves into its third century.
- Sales Rank: #110513 in Books
- Brand: Brand: University Press of Kansas
- Published on: 1994-02-21
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.26" h x 1.09" w x 6.02" l, 1.59 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 524 pages
- Used Book in Good Condition
Review
"Forrest McDonald makes history breathe." --New York Times
From the Back Cover
'Full of perceptive observations and free of cant and cliche. McDonald lucidly discusses many of the issues and controversies surrounding the executive office.'--New York Times Book Review
About the Author
Forrest McDonald is Distinguished Research Professor of History at the University of Alabama and the author of fifteen books including States' Rights and the Union: Imperium in Imperio, 1776-1876; Novus Ordo Seclorum: The Intellectual Origins of the Constitution; "We the People": Economic Origins of the Constitution; E Pluribus Unum: The Foundation of the American Republic, 1776-1790; The Presidency of George Washington; and The Presidency of Thomas Jefferson. He was named by the National Endowment for the Humanities as the sixteenth Jefferson Lecturer, the nation's highest honor in the humanities.
Most helpful customer reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful.
This should be required reading for the entire American populace
By Amazon Customer
Mr. McDonald, in his excellent book, traces the theory and practice of the presidency from Washington to Clinton. The theme is a comparison of constitutional writings and the framers' intent, an area in which McDonald is expert, compared with the actual events on the ground. The oval-office push for ever increasing amounts of power, dubbed the "Imperial Presidency" during the Nixon administration, is behavior that did not originate with 20th century presidents. McDonald argues that congress bears much if not most of the responsibility in that it has, decade by decade, abdicated its constitutional responsibilities in many areas, creating a partial vacuum into which the presidency has stepped. McDonald points out the large number of undeclared wars presidents, stretching back to Jefferson, have begun with no objection from congress. Lest we have forgotten, the ability to declare war was vested in congress to prevent presidents from "expeditioning" abroad.
The book is heavily footnoted, but that is not a distraction. The bulk of the focus is on the first decades of this country's existence and the historic background to the creation of the office of "President." Much effort has gone into detailing the philosophy considered by the framers. Our constitution was, after all, written during the "Age of Reason." This background is, at least in part, the reason the book is subtitled "An Intellectual History."
The difficulties in defining the role of the president are part of why most democracies opt for a parliamentary style government. Another huge issue, as Lincoln demonstrated by completely ignoring the constitution he claimed to be upholding in the Civil War, is that if the troops remain loyal to the president, the American system of checks and balances can be destroyed much more easily (at least in theory) than in parliament in which the prime minister's coalition could remove him from power.
This book is another of Professor McDonald's carefully researched and well-written series on the foundations of our nation and our government. It is truly a "must read."
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
McDonald the Great
By Michael
Great book on the history of the presidency by the inimitable Professor McDonald. The book begins with how the framers were influenced by English law and the history of the executive (ie king and prime minister) up to that point in history. Realize that had there been no George Washington, the framers would have been reluctant to create an executive position that is now known as the presidency.
13 of 18 people found the following review helpful.
Great at the Creation, Dubious in the Present
By A Customer
Prof. McDonald clearly knows his 18th century stuff. The bulk of this book is solidly grounded in his earlier work on the Constitutional convention, the framers, and the early presidents (especially George Washington). But his later discussion of the growth of the presidency is much less well linked to current literature or with historical fact. So: a must read for the "intellectual origins" parts of the book, but much less essential for the present day. For that, try Richard Pious' or Tom Cronin's work.
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