The Prime-Time Presidency

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Author :
Publisher : University of Illinois Press
ISBN 13 : 0252092090
Total Pages : 248 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (52 download)

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Book Synopsis The Prime-Time Presidency by : Shawn J. Parry-Giles

Download or read book The Prime-Time Presidency written by Shawn J. Parry-Giles and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2010-10-01 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contrasting strong women and multiculturalism with portrayals of a heroic white male leading the nation into battle, The Prime-Time Presidency explores the NBC drama The West Wing, paying particular attention to its role in promoting cultural meaning about the presidency and U.S. nationalism. Based in a careful, detailed analysis of the "first term" of The West Wing's President Josiah Bartlet, this criticism highlights the ways the text negotiates powerful tensions and complex ambiguities at the base of U.S. national identity--particularly the role of gender, race, and militarism in the construction of U.S. nationalism. Unlike scattered and disparate collections of essays, Trevor Parry-Giles and Shawn J. Parry-Giles offer a sustained, ideologically driven criticism of The West Wing. The Prime-time Presidency presents a detailed critique of the program rooted in presidential history, an appreciation of television's power as a source of political meaning, and television's contribution to the articulation of U.S. national identity.

The Primetime Presidency of Ronald Reagan

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Author :
Publisher : Praeger
ISBN 13 : 0275926036
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (759 download)

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Book Synopsis The Primetime Presidency of Ronald Reagan by : Robert E. Denton

Download or read book The Primetime Presidency of Ronald Reagan written by Robert E. Denton and published by Praeger. This book was released on 1988-10-14 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beginning in the 1970s, the public has turned to the media for information and guidance in selecting their presidents. Television has become the primary means of getting to know the issues and candidates. This monograph examines the mediazation of the U.S. presidency, as exemplified by President Reagan's role as the great communicator. Specifically, Denton analyzes the use of television as an instrument of image-making and governing, the role of the media in contemporary politics, the impact of television on presidential politics, and the future of the presidency in the age of television. Scholars of communications studies, political science, and American politics will welcome this critical analysis of the primetime presidency.

The Impossible Presidency

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Author :
Publisher : Basic Books
ISBN 13 : 0465093906
Total Pages : 368 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (65 download)

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Book Synopsis The Impossible Presidency by : Jeremi Suri

Download or read book The Impossible Presidency written by Jeremi Suri and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2017-09-12 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A bold new history of the American presidency, arguing that the successful presidents of the past created unrealistic expectations for every president since JFK, with enormously problematic implications for American politics In The Impossible Presidency, celebrated historian Jeremi Suri charts the rise and fall of the American presidency, from the limited role envisaged by the Founding Fathers to its current status as the most powerful job in the world. He argues that the presidency is a victim of its own success-the vastness of the job makes it almost impossible to fulfill the expectations placed upon it. As managers of the world's largest economy and military, contemporary presidents must react to a truly globalized world in a twenty-four-hour news cycle. There is little room left for bold vision. Suri traces America's disenchantment with our recent presidents to the inevitable mismatch between presidential promises and the structural limitations of the office. A masterful reassessment of presidential history, this book is essential reading for anyone trying to understand America's fraught political climate.

Presidents of War

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Publisher : Crown
ISBN 13 : 0307409619
Total Pages : 754 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (74 download)

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Book Synopsis Presidents of War by : Michael Beschloss

Download or read book Presidents of War written by Michael Beschloss and published by Crown. This book was released on 2019-10-22 with total page 754 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From a preeminent presidential historian comes a “superb and important” (The New York Times Book Review) saga of America’s wartime chief executives “Fascinating and heartbreaking . . . timely . . . Beschloss’s broad scope lets you draw important crosscutting lessons about presidential leadership.”—Bill Gates Widely acclaimed and ten years in the making, Michael Beschloss’s Presidents of War is an intimate and irresistibly readable chronicle of the Chief Executives who took the United States into conflict and mobilized it for victory. From the War of 1812 to Vietnam, we see these leaders considering the difficult decision to send hundreds of thousands of Americans to their deaths; struggling with Congress, the courts, the press, and antiwar protesters; seeking comfort from their spouses and friends; and dropping to their knees in prayer. Through Beschloss’s interviews with surviving participants and findings in original letters and once-classified national security documents, we come to understand how these Presidents were able to withstand the pressures of war—or were broken by them. Presidents of War combines this sense of immediacy with the overarching context of two centuries of American history, traveling from the time of our Founders, who tried to constrain presidential power, to our modern day, when a single leader has the potential to launch nuclear weapons that can destroy much of the human race. Praise for Presidents of War "A marvelous narrative. . . . As Beschloss explains, the greatest wartime presidents successfully leaven military action with moral concerns. . . . Beschloss’s writing is clean and concise, and he admirably draws upon new documents. Some of the more titillating tidbits in the book are in the footnotes. . . . There are fascinating nuggets on virtually every page of Presidents of War. It is a superb and important book, superbly rendered.”—Jay Winik, The New York Times Book Review "Sparkle and bite. . . . Valuable and engrossing study of how our chief executives have discharged the most significant of all their duties. . . . Excellent. . . . A fluent narrative that covers two centuries of national conflict.” —Richard Snow, The Wall Street Journal

Constructing Clinton

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Author :
Publisher : Peter Lang Incorporated, International Academic Publishers
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 264 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis Constructing Clinton by : Shawn J. Parry-Giles

Download or read book Constructing Clinton written by Shawn J. Parry-Giles and published by Peter Lang Incorporated, International Academic Publishers. This book was released on 2002 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines Clinton's image as it was produced by visual representations in The Man from Hope, The War Room, Primary Colors, MTV's Biorhythms, and PBS' The American President. The book uses the language of postmodernism in an attempt to make a metaphysics out of what was once just plain old propaganda. The authors teach political communication at the University of Maryland. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The Imperial Presidency

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Publisher : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN 13 : 9780618420018
Total Pages : 630 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (2 download)

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Book Synopsis The Imperial Presidency by : Arthur Meier Schlesinger

Download or read book The Imperial Presidency written by Arthur Meier Schlesinger and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2004 with total page 630 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Publisher Description

Power and Constraint

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Author :
Publisher : National Geographic Books
ISBN 13 : 0393081338
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (93 download)

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Book Synopsis Power and Constraint by : Jack Goldsmith

Download or read book Power and Constraint written by Jack Goldsmith and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2012-03-13 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The surprising truth behind Barack Obama's decision to continue many of his predecessor's counterterrorism policies. Conventional wisdom holds that 9/11 sounded the death knell for presidential accountability. In fact, the opposite is true. The novel powers that our post-9/11 commanders in chief assumed—endless detentions, military commissions, state secrets, broad surveillance, and more—are the culmination of a two-century expansion of presidential authority. But these new powers have been met with thousands of barely visible legal and political constraints—enforced by congressional committees, government lawyers, courts, and the media—that have transformed our unprecedentedly powerful presidency into one that is also unprecedentedly accountable. These constraints are the key to understanding why Obama continued the Bush counterterrorism program, and in this light, the events of the last decade should be seen as a victory, not a failure, of American constitutional government. We have actually preserved the framers’ original idea of a balanced constitution, despite the vast increase in presidential power made necessary by this age of permanent emergency.

The West Wing

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Publisher : Syracuse University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780815630265
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (32 download)

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Book Synopsis The West Wing by : Peter C. Rollins

Download or read book The West Wing written by Peter C. Rollins and published by Syracuse University Press. This book was released on 2003-04-01 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eminent scholars Peter C. Rollins and John O'Connor make an important contribution to the field with an eclectic mix of essays, which translate visual language into on-screen politics. While the series may be criticized as "idealistic," its clever techniques of camera work, lighting, editing, and mise en scene reflect America's best image of itself, and entertains a loyal audience that desperately wants to believe in the nobility of the American dream. This collection introduces readers to the sensibilities to appreciate the show's nuances and the necessary knowledge to avoid any misreadings. It will be of interest to students of politics, popular culture, fans and critics alike.

Republic of Spin: An Inside History of the American Presidency

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Author :
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 0393285502
Total Pages : 560 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (932 download)

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Book Synopsis Republic of Spin: An Inside History of the American Presidency by : David Greenberg

Download or read book Republic of Spin: An Inside History of the American Presidency written by David Greenberg and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2016-01-11 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A brilliant, fast-moving narrative history of the leaders who have defined the modern American presidency.”—Bob Woodward In Republic of Spin—a vibrant history covering more than one hundred years of politics—presidential historian David Greenberg recounts the rise of the White House spin machine, from Teddy Roosevelt to Barack Obama. His sweeping, startling narrative takes us behind the scenes to see how the tools and techniques of image making and message craft work. We meet Woodrow Wilson convening the first White House press conference, Franklin Roosevelt huddling with his private pollsters, Ronald Reagan’s aides crafting his nightly news sound bites, and George W. Bush staging his “Mission Accomplished” photo-op. We meet, too, the backstage visionaries who pioneered new ways of gauging public opinion and mastering the media—figures like George Cortelyou, TR’s brilliantly efficient press manager; 1920s ad whiz Bruce Barton; Robert Montgomery, Dwight Eisenhower’s canny TV coach; and of course the key spinmeisters of our own times, from Roger Ailes to David Axelrod. Greenberg also examines the profound debates Americans have waged over the effect of spin on our politics. Does spin help our leaders manipulate the citizenry? Or does it allow them to engage us more fully in the democratic project? Exploring the ideas of the century’s most incisive political critics, from Walter Lippmann and H. L. Mencken to Hannah Arendt and Stephen Colbert, Republic of Spin illuminates both the power of spin and its limitations—its capacity not only to mislead but also to lead.

The Gatekeepers

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Author :
Publisher : Crown Publishing Group (NY)
ISBN 13 : 0804138249
Total Pages : 386 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (41 download)

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Book Synopsis The Gatekeepers by : Chris Whipple

Download or read book The Gatekeepers written by Chris Whipple and published by Crown Publishing Group (NY). This book was released on 2017 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The first in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at the White House Chiefs of Staff, whose actions--and inactions--have defined the course of our country. Since George Washington, presidents have depended on the advice of key confidants. But it wasn't until the twentieth century that the White House chief of staff became the second most powerful job in government. Unelected and unconfirmed, the chief serves at the whim of the president, hired and fired by him alone. He is the president's closest adviser and the person he depends on to execute his agenda. He decides who gets to see the president, negotiates with Congress, and--most crucially--enjoys unparalleled access to the leader of the free world. When the president makes a life-and-death decision, often the chief of staff is the only other person in the room. Each chief can make or break an administration, and each president reveals himself by the chief he picks. Through extensive, intimate interviews with all seventeen living chiefs and two former presidents, award-winning journalist and producer Chris Whipple pulls back the curtain on this unique fraternity, whose members have included Rahm Emanuel, Dick Cheney, Leon Panetta, and Donald Rumsfeld. In doing so, he revises our understanding of presidential history, showing us how James Baker and Panetta skillfully managed the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, ensuring their reelections--and, conversely, how Jimmy Carter never understood the importance of a chief, crippling his ability to govern. From Watergate to Iran-Contra to the Monica Lewinsky scandal to the Iraq War, Whipple shows us how the chief of staff can make the difference between success and disaster. As an outsider president tries to govern after a bitterly divisive election, The Gatekeepers could not be more timely. Filled with shrewd analysis and never-before-reported details, it is a compelling history that changes our perspective on the presidency."--Jacket flap.

The President, the Pope, And the Prime Minister

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Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1596980346
Total Pages : 448 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (969 download)

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Book Synopsis The President, the Pope, And the Prime Minister by : John O'Sullivan

Download or read book The President, the Pope, And the Prime Minister written by John O'Sullivan and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2006-11-25 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The President, the Pope, and the Prime Minister is a sweeping, dramatic account of how three great figures changed the course of history. All of them led with courage — but also with great optimism. The pope helped ordinary Poles and East Europeans banish their fear of Soviet Communism, convincing them that liberation was possible. The prime minister restored her country's failing economy by reviving the "vigorous virtues" of the British people. The president rebuilt America's military power, its national morale, and its pre – eminence as leader of the free world. Together, they brought down an evil empire and changed the world for the better. No one can tell their intertwined story better than John O'Sullivan, former editor of National Review and the Times of London, who knew all three and conducted exclusive interviews that shed extraordinary new light on these giants of the twentieth century.

The Unexpected President

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Author :
Publisher : Da Capo Press
ISBN 13 : 9780306922701
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (227 download)

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Book Synopsis The Unexpected President by : Scott S. Greenberger

Download or read book The Unexpected President written by Scott S. Greenberger and published by Da Capo Press. This book was released on 2019-06-04 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When President James Garfield was shot in 1881, nobody expected Vice President Chester A. Arthur to become a strong and effective president, a courageous anti-corruption reformer, and an early civil rights advocate. Despite his promising start as a young man, by his early fifties Chester A. Arthur was known as the crooked crony of New York machine boss Roscoe Conkling. For years Arthur had been perceived as unfit to govern, not only by critics and the vast majority of his fellow citizens but by his own conscience. As President James A. Garfield struggled for his life, Arthur knew better than his detractors that he failed to meet the high standard a president must uphold. And yet, from the moment President Arthur took office, he proved to be not just honest but brave, going up against the very forces that had controlled him for decades. He surprised everyone--and gained many enemies--when he swept house and took on corruption, civil rights for blacks, and issues of land for Native Americans. A mysterious young woman deserves much of the credit for Arthur's remarkable transformation. Julia Sand, a bedridden New Yorker, wrote Arthur nearly two dozen letters urging him to put country over party, to find "the spark of true nobility" that lay within him. At a time when women were barred from political life, Sand's letters inspired Arthur to transcend his checkered past--and changed the course of American history. This beautifully written biography tells the dramatic, untold story of a virtually forgotten American president. It is the tale of a machine politician and man-about-town in Gilded Age New York who stumbled into the highest office in the land, only to rediscover his better self when his nation needed him.

The Hardest Job in the World

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Author :
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 1984854526
Total Pages : 672 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (848 download)

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Book Synopsis The Hardest Job in the World by : John Dickerson

Download or read book The Hardest Job in the World written by John Dickerson and published by Random House. This book was released on 2020-06-16 with total page 672 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the veteran political journalist and 60 Minutes correspondent, a deep dive into the history, evolution, and current state of the American presidency, and how we can make the job less impossible and more productive—featuring a new post-2020–election epilogue “This is a great gift to our sense of the actual presidency, a primer on leadership.”—Ken Burns Imagine you have just been elected president. You are now commander-in-chief, chief executive, chief diplomat, chief legislator, chief of party, chief voice of the people, first responder, chief priest, and world leader. You’re expected to fulfill your campaign promises, but you’re also expected to solve the urgent crises of the day. What’s on your to-do list? Where would you even start? What shocks aren’t you thinking about? The American presidency is in trouble. It has become overburdened, misunderstood, almost impossible to do. “The problems in the job unfolded before Donald Trump was elected, and the challenges of governing today will confront his successors,” writes John Dickerson. After all, the founders never intended for our system of checks and balances to have one superior Chief Magistrate, with Congress demoted to “the little brother who can’t keep up.” In this eye-opening book, John Dickerson writes about presidents in history such a Washington, Lincoln, FDR, and Eisenhower, and and in contemporary times, from LBJ and Reagan and Bush, Obama, and Trump, to show how a complex job has been done, and why we need to reevaluate how we view the presidency, how we choose our presidents, and what we expect from them once they are in office. Think of the presidential campaign as a job interview. Are we asking the right questions? Are we looking for good campaigners, or good presidents? Once a candidate gets the job, what can they do to thrive? Drawing on research and interviews with current and former White House staffers, Dickerson defines what the job of president actually entails, identifies the things that only the president can do, and analyzes how presidents in history have managed the burden. What qualities make for a good president? Who did it well? Why did Bill Clinton call the White House “the crown jewel in the American penal system”? The presidency is a job of surprises with high stakes, requiring vision, management skill, and an even temperament. Ultimately, in order to evaluate candidates properly for the job, we need to adjust our expectations, and be more realistic about the goals, the requirements, and the limitations of the office. As Dickerson writes, “Americans need their president to succeed, but the presidency is set up for failure. It doesn’t have to be.”

The Defining Moment

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Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 0743246012
Total Pages : 454 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (432 download)

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Book Synopsis The Defining Moment by : Jonathan Alter

Download or read book The Defining Moment written by Jonathan Alter and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2007-05-08 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this dramatic and authoritative account, the author shows how Franklin Delano Roosevelt used his famous "fear itself" speech and the first 100 days in office to lift the country from despair and paralysis and transform the American presidency.

When the Center Held

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Publisher : Free Press
ISBN 13 : 1501172948
Total Pages : 352 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (11 download)

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Book Synopsis When the Center Held by : Donald Rumsfeld

Download or read book When the Center Held written by Donald Rumsfeld and published by Free Press. This book was released on 2019-06-11 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A personal look behind the scenes” (Publishers Weekly) of the presidency of Gerald Ford as seen through the eyes of Donald Rumsfeld—New York Times bestselling author and Ford’s former Secretary of Defense, Chief of Staff, and longtime personal confidant. In the wake of Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal, it seemed the United States was coming apart. America had experienced a decade of horrifying assassinations; the unprecedented resignation of first a vice president and then a president of the United States; intense cultural and social change; and a new mood of cynicism sweeping the country—a mood that, in some ways, lingers today. Into that divided atmosphere stepped an unexpected, unelected, and largely unknown American—Gerald R. Ford. In contrast to every other individual who had ever occupied the Oval Office, he had never appeared on any ballot either for the presidency or the vice presidency. Ford simply and humbly performed his duty to the best of his considerable ability. By the end of his 895 days as president, he would in fact have restored balance to our country, steadied the ship of state, and led his fellow Americans out of the national trauma of Watergate. And yet, Gerald Ford remains one of the least studied and least understood individuals to have held the office of the President of the United States. In turn, his legacy also remains severely underappreciated. In When the Center Held, Ford’s Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld candidly shares his personal observations of the man himself, providing a sweeping examination of his crucial years in office. It is a rare and fascinating look behind the closed doors of the Oval Office, including never-before-seen photos, memos, and anecdotes, from a unique insider’s perspective—“engrossing and informative” (Kirkus Reviews) reading for any fan of presidential history.

The Ubiquitous Presidency

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0197520634
Total Pages : 249 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (975 download)

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Book Synopsis The Ubiquitous Presidency by : Joshua M. Scacco

Download or read book The Ubiquitous Presidency written by Joshua M. Scacco and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2021 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "American democracy is in a period of striking tumult. The clash of a rapidly changing socio-technological environment and the traditional presidency has led to an upheaval in the scope and standards of executive leadership. Research on the presidency, although abundant, has been slow to adjust to changing realities associated with digital technologies, diverse audiences, and new political practices. Meanwhile, journalists and the public continue to encounter and shape emerging presidential efforts in deeply consequential ways. This book offers a comprehensive framework for understanding contemporary presidential communication: the ubiquitous presidency. Presidents harness new opportunities in the media environment to create a nearly constant and highly visible presence in political and nonpolitical arenas. They do this by trying to achieve longstanding presidential goals, namely visibility, adaptation, and control. However, in an environment where accessibility, personalization, and pluralism are omnipresent considerations, the strategies presidents use to achieve their goals are very different from what we once knew. Using this novel framework, the book undertakes one of the most expansive analyses of presidential communication to date. A wide variety of approaches-ranging from surveys and survey-experiments, to large-scale automated content and network analyses, to qualitative textual analysis-uncover new aspects of the intricate relationship between the president, news media, and the public. Focusing on the presidency since Ronald Reagan, and devoting particular attention to the cases of Barack Obama and Donald Trump, the book uncovers remarkable shifts in communication that test the institution of the presidency and, consequently, democratic governance itself"--

Under This Roof

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Author :
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1493019317
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (93 download)

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Book Synopsis Under This Roof by : Paul Brandus

Download or read book Under This Roof written by Paul Brandus and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2015-09-29 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Like taking a tour of the White House with a gifted storyteller at your side!” Why, in the minutes before John F. Kennedy was murdered, was a blood-red carpet installed in the Oval Office? If Abraham Lincoln never slept in the Lincoln Bedroom, where did he sleep? Why was one president nearly killed in the White House on inauguration day—and another secretly sworn in? What really happened in the Situation Room on September 11, 2001? History leaps off the page in this “riveting,” “fast-moving” and “highly entertaining” book on the presidency and White House in Under This Roof, from award-winning White House-based journalist Paul Brandus. Reporting from the West Wing briefing room since 2008, Brandus—the most followed White House journalist on Twitter (@WestWingReport)—weaves together stories of the presidents, their families, the events of their time—and an oft-ignored major character, the White House itself. From George Washington—who selected the winning design for the White House—to the current occupant, Barack Obama—the story of the White House is the story of America itself, Brandus writes. You’ll: Walk with John Adams through the still-unfinished mansion, and watch Thomas Jefferson plot to buy the Louisiana Territory Feel the fear and panic as British invaders approach the mansion in 1814—and Dolley Madison frantically saves a painting of Washington Gaze out the window with Abraham Lincoln as Confederate flags flutter in the breeze on the other side of the Potomac Be in the room as one president is secretly sworn in, and another gambles away the White House china in a card game Stand by the presidential bed as one First Lady—covering up her husband’s illness from the nation—secretly makes decisions on his behalf Learn how telephones, movies, radio, TV changed the presidency—and the nation itself Through triumph and tragedy, boom and bust, secrets and scandals, Brandus takes you to the presidential bedroom, movie theater, Situation Room, Oval Office and more. Under This Roof is a “sensuous account of the history of both the home of the President, and the men and women who designed, inhabited, and decorated it. Paul Brandus captivates with surprising, gloriously raw observations.”