Lost Soul of the American Presidency

Stephen F. Knott is professor of national security affairs at the United States Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. His many books include Alexander Hamilton and the Persistence of Myth and Rush to Judgment: George W. Bush, the War on Terror, and His Critics, both from Kansas, and Secret and Sanctioned: Covert Operations and the American Presidency.

How did the Founders’ vision of a dignified presidency that elevates the republic evolve to its current status as the national seat of direct populist leadership often appealing to and enabling some of the worst instincts of our citizens? As Knott so ably describes and analyzes, it didn’t start with President Trump, who represents the culmination of a long and troubling trend in our democratic republic. To understand how we got to our current situation, no work of scholarship better tells that story. A must-read." - Mark J. Rozell, author of Executive Privilege: Presidential Power, Secrecy, and Accountability"The Lost Soul of the American Presidency is a significant contribution to the field of presidency studies. Stephen F. Knott offers a reassessment of the office that challenges the tendency of many scholars in recent decades who focus more on ‘presidential greatness’ than the core constitutional principles the Framers envisioned for the office. It is an essential read for anyone who wants a better understanding of the origins of the office and how it can explain the president’s role in the current political environment." - Lori Cox Han, coauthor of Presidents and the American Presidency"The Lost Soul of the American Presidency provides a welcome and timely antidote to both the left’s romance with the progressive presidency model and the right’s newfound love affair with the ‘unitary executive.’ Arguing that the Framers’ limited ‘republican’ presidency has morphed into a president as democratic tribune to the people, Knott calls for a return to the ‘sober expectations’ of the Framers’ true or ‘originalist’ constitutional model of the presidency. Challenging the contemporary orthodoxy, this book should have a significant impact on how we view the presidency." - Michael A. Genovese, president, Global Policy Institute at Loyola Marymount University and author of How Trump Governs: An Assessment and a Prognosis"In this provocative, beautifully written book, Stephen F. Knott reopens the essential debate regarding the origins and evolution of presidential power." - David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler, award-winning historians and authors of The Rise of Andrew Jackson: Myth, Manipulation, and the Making of Modern Politics