American Presidency

Sidney M. Milkis is the White Burkett Miller Professor and the Cavaliers′ Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of Politics and a Faculty Associate at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. His books include The President and the Parties (1993), The Politics of Regulatory Change, 2d edition (1996), Political Parties and Constitutional Government (1999), Presidential Greatness (2000), and The New Deal and the Triumph of Liberalism (2002). His articles have appeared in Political Science Quarterly, Studies in American Political Development, The Journal of Policy History, and several edited volumes.Michael Nelson is Fulmer Professor of Political Science at Rhodes College and a senior fellow at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. A former editor of the Washington Monthly, his most recent books include Trump’s First Year (2018); The Elections of 2016 (2018); The Evolving Presidency: Landmark Documents (2019); The American Presidency: Origins and Development (with Sidney M. Milkis, 2011); and Governing at Home: The White House and Domestic Policymaking (with Russell B. Riley, 2011). Nelson has contributed to numerous journals, including the Journal of Policy History, Journal of Politics, and Political Science Quarterly. He also has written multiple articles on subjects as varied as baseball, Frank Sinatra, and C. S. Lewis. More than fifty of his articles have been anthologized in works of political science, history, and English composition. His 2014 book, Resilient America: Electing Nixon, Channeling Dissent, and Dividing Government, won the American Political Science Association’s Richard E. Neustadt Award for best book on the presidency published that year; and his 2006 book with John Lyman Mason, How the South Joined the Gambling Nation, won the Southern Political Science Association’s V.O. Key Award.

• PrefaceChapter 1 The Constitutional ConventionAntecedentsThe Constitutional ConventionChapter 2 Creating the PresidencyThe Making of the Presidency: An OverviewNumber of the ExecutiveSelection and SuccessionTerm of OfficeRemovalInstitutional Separation from CongressEnumerated PowersThe Vice PresidencyRatifying the ConstitutionChapter 3 Bringing the Constitutional Presidency to Life: George Washington and John AdamsThe Election of George WashingtonMaking the Presidency Safe for DemocracyForming the Executive and Judicial BranchesPresidential “Supremacy” and the Conduct of the Executive BranchPresidential Nonpartisanship and the Beginning of Party ConflictWashington’s Retirement and the Jay Treaty: The Constitutional Crisis of 1796The 1796 ElectionThe Embattled Presidency of John AdamsThe Alien and Sedition ActsChapter 4 The Triumph of JeffersonianismThe “Revolution” of 1800Jefferson’s War with the JudiciaryThe Democratic-Republican Program and the Adjustment to PowerThe Limits of “Popular” LeadershipThe Twelfth AmendmentJefferson’s Mixed LegacyThe Presidency of James Madison and the Rise of the House of RepresentativesThe Presidency of James MonroeChapter 5 The Age of JacksonJacksonian DemocracyThe Rise of the Party ConventionJackson’s Struggle with CongressThe Aftermath of the Bank VetoThe Decline of the CabinetThe Limits of the Jacksonian PresidencyMartin Van Buren and the Panic of 1837The Jacksonian Presidency SustainedJohn Tyler and the Problem of Presidential SuccessionThe Presidency of James K. PolkThe Slavery Controversy and the Twilight of the Jacksonian PresidencyChapter 6 The Presidency of Abraham LincolnLincoln and the Slavery ControversyThe Election of 1860Lincoln and SecessionLincoln’s Wartime MeasuresThe Emancipation ProclamationThe Election of 1864Lincoln’s LegacyChapter 7 The Reaction against Presidential Power: Andrew Johnson to William McKinleyReconstruction and the Assault on Executive AuthorityThe Impeachment of Andrew JohnsonUlysses S. Grant and the Abdication of Executive PowerThe Fight to Restore Presidential PowerCongressional Government and the Prelude to a More Active PresidencyChapter 8 Progressive Politics and Executive Power: The Presidencies of Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow WilsonTheodore Roosevelt and the Expansion of Executive PowerThe Troubled Presidency of William Howard TaftProgressive Politics and the Elections of 1912Woodrow Wilson’s Theory of Executive LeadershipWilson and Party ReformThe Art of Popular LeadershipWilson’s Relations with CongressWilson as World LeaderChapter 9 The Triumph of Conservative RepublicanismThe Harding EraThe “Silent” Politics of Calvin CoolidgeHerbert C. Hoover and the Great DepressionThe Twentieth AmendmentChapter 10 The Consolidation of the Modern Presidency: Franklin D. Roosevelt to Dwight D. EisenhowerFranklin D. Roosevelt and the Modern PresidencyThe Modern Presidency Sustained: Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. EisenhowerChapter 11 Personalizing the Presidency: John F. Kennedy to Jimmy CarterJohn F. Kennedy and the Rise of the “Personal Presidency”Lyndon B. Johnson and Presidential GovernmentThe Twenty-Fifth AmendmentThe Presidency of Richard NixonGerald R. Ford and the Post-Watergate EraA President Named JimmyChapter 12 A Restoration of Presidential Power? Ronald Reagan and George BushThe Reagan RevolutionA Reagan Court?The Bush PresidencyChapter 13 Bill Clinton and the Modern PresidencyThe Election of 1992The First Year of the Clinton PresidencyThe 1994 Elections and the Restoration of Divided GovernmentThe Comeback PresidentBalanced Budgets, Impeachment Politics, and the Limits of the Third WayChapter 14 George W. Bush and Unilateral Presidential PowerThe 2000 ElectionBush v. GoreThe Early Months of the Bush PresidencySeptember 11 and the War on TerrorismAn Expanded PresidencyBush and the Republican PartyCourts and PartiesPartisanship and Unilateralism at the Twilight of the Bush PresidencyChapter 15 Barack Obama and Presidential Leadership in Polarized TimesThe 2008 ElectionsThe New Foundation and Partisan RancorWe Can’t Wait: Obama and the Administrative PresidencyObama’s Reelection and the Perils of PartisanshipObama, Partisanship, and the War on TerrorismBarack Obama’s Fragile LegacyChapter 16 The Trump Presidency and Resilience of Constitutional GovernmentTaking OfficeForming the AdministrationTrump’s Administrative PresidencyThe CourtsTrump and CongressThe Rhetorical PresidencyForeign PolicyConclusionChapter 17 The Vice PresidencyThe Founding PeriodThe Vice Presidency in the Nineteenth CenturyTheodore Roosevelt to Harry S. TrumanThe Modern Vice PresidencyConclusionAppendixConstitution of the United StatesU.S. Presidents and Vice PresidentsSummary of Presidential Elections, 1789–2016Index

"Milkis and Nelson provide the gold standard for a political development approach to the American presidency."