Politically Incorrect Guide to the Presidents
From Wilson to Obama
Published on 13. February 2012
272 pages
978-1-59698-779-1 (ISBN)
Description
Larry Schweikart, a retired history professor, is ready to set the record straight on the American presidents. He goes through each of the first 26 presidents from Washington to Taft and debunks myths, lies, and fake news made fact by the uninformed. Discover why George Washington favored American isolationism; James Madison supported states' rights; what Lincoln promised to Southerners about fugitive slaves; and why nineteenth-century presidents were the last to understand the true role of government. So what made these presidents so much better than the ones America has now? Schweikart argues that recent commanders-in-chief have welcomed crises to advance their own partisan agenda, defied the separation of powers the Founders carefully constructed to preserve the Republic, and given us every reason to doubt they take the country's interests to heart.
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03/2012
Regnery Publishing Inc
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Steven F.Hayward
Content
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Contents
- Chapter 1 Not What the Founders Had in Mind
- The Presidency Has Grown-and the Citizens Have Shrunk
- What Makes a Truly Great President?
- Measuring Presidents-the Forgotten Yardstick
- The Constitution Ignored
- Chapter 2 The Presidency the Founders Created
- The Electoral College and the Creation of "Deliberative Majorities"
- The Founders on the Character of the Executive Office
- George Washington's Republican Modesty
- Our Early Presidents: Defenders of the Constitution
- The Birth of the Modern Presidency
- Grading the Presidents
- Chapter 3 Woodrow Wilson, 1913-1921
- Wilson the Conservative?
- The Revolutionary President
- Wilsonian "Progress," on a Collision Course with the Constitution
- Wilson's "Mature Freedom" versus the Founders' "Liberty"
- Wilson on the President: Visionary Leader, Voice of the People, and Crusher of the Opposition
- Wilson, Enthusiast for Bureaucracy
- Arrogance in Office
- Chapter 4 Warren G. Harding, 1921-1923
- The Most Underrated Modern President
- An Unlikely Nomination, a Landslide Election
- Harding, the Anti-Wilson
- Solid Achievements in Foreign Affairs
- Harding on the Constitution
- Harding's Posthumous Reputation
- The Scandals
- Chapter 5 Calvin Coolidge, 1923-1929
- A Classical American Education
- Rising Political Star
- Coolidge in the White House
- Coolidge's One Supreme Court (Dis)Appointment
- Chapter 6 Herbert Hoover, 1929-1933
- Politics Is Not Engineering
- Hoover Tries to Fix the Depression, Inadvertently Makes It Great
- Out of Office, Hoover Moves Right
- Chapter 7 Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1933-1945
- The Modern Left Is Far Left of FDR
- The Paradox of FDR
- FDR's Living Constitutionalism
- FDR's Assault on the Judicial Branch
- FDR's Lasting Legacy: A Supreme Court Unconstrained by the Constitution
- Chapter 8 Harry Truman, 1945-1953
- The Self-Taught Statesman
- Truman's Last Great Achievement: Cold War Strategy
- Abuse of Executive Power
- Chapter 9 Dwight David ("Ike") Eisenhower, 1953-1961
- A Master Manager
- Not an Ideological Conservative
- Chapter 10 John F. Kennedy, 1961-1963
- Kennedy's Recklessness
- Character and Performance in Office
- Botching the Cuban Missile Crisis
- JFK, Supply-Sider
- Kennedy's Political Legacy
- JFK's Constitutional Legacy
- Chapter 11 Lyndon Baines Johnson, 1963-1969
- The "Great Society" and the "War on Poverty": Johnson Fails at Home
- The Vietnam War: Johnson Fails Abroad
- A Low Point in Judicial History
- Chapter 12 Richard M. Nixon, 1969-1974
- Nixon's Complicated Character and Forgotten Magnanimity
- The Embattled President
- The Folly of Détente
- Nixon's Liberalism on Domestic Policy
- Getting Watergate Wrong
- Nixon's Constitutional Legacy
- Chapter 13 Gerald Ford, 1974-1977
- Stagflation at Home
- Weakness Abroad
- A Mixed Record on the Constitution
- Chapter 14 James Earl Carter, 1977-1981
- Carter's Character
- Domestic Policy Disasters
- President Malaise
- Foreign Policy Disasters
- President Carter's Constitutional Grade
- Chapter 15 Ronald Wilson Reagan, 1981-1989
- Reagan the Restorer
- Reagan's Unfinished Agenda
- The Pro-Life President
- The President's Prerogative Power
- One Bull's Eye and Two Close Shots
- Chapter 16 George H. W. Bush, 1989-1993
- Squandering the Reagan Legacy
- Bush Abroad
- A Split Decision
- Chapter 17 William Jefferson Clinton, 1993-2001
- By Order of the President
- Clinton's Monument Valley
- I Beg Your Pardon
- From Odometers to Anteaters
- Things Go Better with Coke
- Close Enough for Government Work
- Family Values
- Rich and Pinky
- Descent to the Murky Bottom
- The High Cost of Bad Character
- Radicals in Black Robes
- Chapter 18 George Walker Bush, 2001-2009
- "Events, Dear Boy"
- More Compassionate Than Conservative?
- Defending America, Enraging the Left
- Bush and the Constitution
- Chapter 19 Barack Hussein Obama, 2009-?
- Obama's "Fourth Wave" Ambitions
- The Nature of Obama's Radicalism
- Obama's Contempt for the Middle Class
- A Citizen of the World
- Holding the Constitution in Contempt
- Conclusion: Taking the Oath Seriously
- Selected Bibliography
- Index
