Preface, 1997 I. PLACES IN HISTORY 1. Rethinking Presidential History 2. Power and Authority 3. Structure and Action II. RECURRENT AND EMERGENT PATTERNS 4. Jeffersonian Leadership: Patrician Prototypes Part One: Thomas Jefferson's Reconstruction Part Two: James Monroe's Articulation Part Three: John Quincy Adams's Disjunction 5. Jacksonian Leadership: Classic Forms Part One: Andrew Jackson's Reconstruction Part Two: James Polk's Articulation Part Three: Franklin Pierce's Disjunction 6. Republican Leadership: Stiffening Crosscurrents Part One: Abraham Lincoln's Reconstruction Part Two: Theodore Roosevelt's Articulation Part Three: Herbert Hoover's Disjunction 7. Liberal Leadership: Fraying Boundaries Part One: Franklin Roosevelt's Reconstruction Part Two: Lyndon Johnson's Articulation Part Three: Jimmy Carter's Disjunction III. THE WANING OF POLITICAL TIME 8. Reagan, Bush, and Beyond Afterward Notes Index
A work of great insight...This is a book that kicks aside all the conventional ways of thinking about presidential leadership and erects a daring, powerful, analytic machine that compels attention. -- Hugh Heclo, George Mason University
Stephen Skowronek is the Pelatiah Perit Professor of Political and Social Science at Yale University.
A magisterial work, one of the most important studies of the
presidency--indeed, of American politics--ever
written...[Skowronek] comes very close to identifying the root
problem affecting presidents...This is the all-important fact that
the Constitution is unchanging and nondeveloped, while at all times
intersecting with a social, economic, and political world that has
undergone incessant development from the beginning. The whole work
may be read as an extended, powerful, and penetrating meditation on
some of the global consequences of this fact.
*American Political Science Review*
In evaluating the field of political authority, Skowronek
skillfully and systematically makes use of historical evidence. His
approach can only be applauded as it brings a new and broader
understanding of the historical evolution of the presidency.
*American Studies in Scandinavia*
Skowronek...brings illuminating insights to each president that he
discusses...A major theoretical contribution to the study of the
presidency.
*Political Science Quarterly*
The book brings together current ideas of political scientists on
the theory of presidential leadership, as well as incorporating the
major historical works on the various presidents. It is history
from the top rather than from the bottom, and while current
historical trends are in the opposite direction, this
sophisticated, scholarly analysis of presidential leadership
illustrates that the history of political leadership is a subject
on which innovative, imaginative approaches can still produce
important new perspectives.
*The Americas*
Stephen Skowronek's much awaited book relating cycles of the US
presidency to what the author has previously called "political
time" is an instant conversation piece. The Politics Presidents
Make is a book that will engage scholars of political leadership
and, particularly, those of the US presidency with its categories
and its arguments. It is also easy to imagine that this book will
evoke theological debates.
*Governance*
A work of great insight...This is a book that kicks aside all the
conventional ways of thinking about presidential leadership and
erects a daring, powerful, analytic machine that compels
attention.
*Hugh Heclo, George Mason University*
This is a remarkable book...A skilled practitioner of the use of
historical evidence systematically to understand not only the
evolution, but also the current nature, of American political
institutions, [Skowronek] examines the whole crowded history of the
presidency to catalog and organize the two hundred year experience
in a fresh and striking fashion.
*Review of Politics*
In this pathbreaking work, Stephen Skowronek escapes from "secular
time" to view presidents in what he calls "political time," meaning
incumbents' relationships to their predecessors and to the status
quo...This rich, insightful, resonant volume merits reading and
rereading. It is destined to be a classic of presidential
scholarship.
*Journal of American History*
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