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Title: The Paradoxes of the American Presidency by Thomas E. Cronin, Michael A. Genovese ISBN: 0-19-511693-3 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: January, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (2 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Surprisingly Good
Comment: What an informative and insightful book this turned out to be. I found it on a sale table and gave it a try. I was concerned that the book was nothing more then a tenured professor's attempt at fulfilling his publishing requirements, it turns out that this concern not needed. The book takes the reader through most of the major issues that effect the President in his duties and it does it in an easy to read and understandable format. What is very interesting is that they present the "paradoxes" that the public has pushed the Presidents into the corner on. What we the public what and expects has shaped the office as much as the past office holders.
The authors also look at some stated ways of improving the Presidency and what their opinions are on the methods - very interesting. To bring the ideas and comments more alive they fill the book up with a large number of examples of which a good 70 % relate to the last 10 Presidents. There are also two sections that, given the past years, are even more interesting - Vice Presidents moving to the lead role and impeachment. Overall this was a very good and interesting book. This is the kind of book that both entertains and teaches the reader something in the process.
Rating: 5
Summary: And Yet Nonetheless True
Comment: In Chapter 1, the authors observe:
"We admire presidential power, yet fear it. We yearn for the heroic, yet are also inherently suspicious of it.We demand dynamic leadership, yet grant only limited powers to the president. We want presidents to be dispassionate analysts and listeners, yet they must also be decisive. We are impressed with presidents who have great self-confidence, yet we dislike arrogance and respect those who express reasonable self-doubt."
Throughout the balance of this chapter, they then identify and briefly discuss nine specific paradoxes which serve as the intellectual infrastructure of this brilliant book. In process, the authors also provide (in effect) a comprehensive analysis of more than 200 years of American history during which the office of the president as well as those who have occupied it reflect the dynamic tensions between and among the elements of the nine paradoxes.
The authors seem to suggest that those American presidents who have proven most effective have been those who (a) understood various paradoxes and then (b) somehow resolved them. The Roosevelts offer two of the best examples. Both were born into wealth and privilege and yet each is best remembered for advancing "populist" causes. The authors invite the reader to view the American presidency "by viewing it through the lens of a series of [such] paradoxes that shape and define the office. Our goal is to convey the complexity, the many-sidedness, and the contrarian aspects of the office."
This book will be of special value to those interested in American history, of course, but also to those who are CEOs of organizations, especially of publicly owned corporations whose CEOs must accommodate the needs and interests of so many different (often antagonistic) constituencies.
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Title: Founding the American Presidency by Richard J. Ellis ISBN: 0847694992 Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishing (via NBN) Pub. Date: August, 1999 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Presidency and Domestic Policy: Comparing Leadership Styles, FDR to Clinton by William W. Lammers, Michael A. Genovese ISBN: 1568021240 Publisher: CQ Press Pub. Date: February, 2000 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: The Presidency and the Law: The Clinton Legacy by David Gray Adler, Michael A. Genovese, Thomas E. Cronin ISBN: 0700611940 Publisher: Univ Pr of Kansas Pub. Date: September, 2002 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: The Presidential Dilemma : Leadership in the American System by Michael A. Genovese ISBN: 0673992780 Publisher: Addison-Wesley Pub Co Pub. Date: January, 1997 List Price(USD): $44.00 |
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Title: The Power of the American Presidency, 1789-2000: 1789-2000 by Michael A. Genovese ISBN: 0195125452 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: September, 2000 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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