Few politicians in recent American history are as well-known as Ronald Reagan, the 40th U.S. president. An iconic leader, Reagan shifted the direction of American politics toward a newly vigorous conservatism. Though he began his career as a New Deal liberal, by the end of the 1950s, Reagan had embraced conservative views. His presidency saw the longest peacetime prosperity in American history, as well as the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War, but also skyrocketing deficits and the Iran-Contra scandal. In the twenty-first century, Reagan's legacy is both pervasive and contested, with supporters and detractors often divided along partisan lines. Yet Reagan's own actions did not always fit into partisan boxes. In a clear-eyed and insightful narrative, James H. Broussard cuts through the mythology of both sides to produce a nuanced portrait of Reagan in his historical context. Supported by primary sources and a robust companion website, this concise biography is an ideal intoduction to this fascinating president and the issues that shaped America in the late 20th century. Routledge Historical Americans is a series of short, vibrant biographies that illuminate the lives of Americans who have had an impact on the world. Each book includes a short overview of the person's life and puts that person into historical context through essential primary documents, written both by the subjects and about them. A series website supports the books, containing extra images and documents, links to further research, and where possible, multi-media sources on the subjects. Perfect for including in any course on American History, the books in the Routledge Historical Americans series show the impact everyday people can have on the course of history.

Leadership and Coherence investigates how leaders justify their decisions, and how they bring about coherence amongst followers. Taking a cognitive approach, it builds on the work of Hannah Arendt to attempt a phenomenology of judgment, examining how the moral imperative experienced by leaders can be shared by their community so both leader and led are guided by a mutual purpose. Through biographical case studies of historical leaders, this book illustrates how successful leaders operate in a turbulent world, not only making their own decisions but also gathering likeminded followers to share in a common vision and shared sense of purpose.

This book examines how efforts to exert accountability in crises affect public trust in governing institutions. Using Sweden as the case study, this book provides a framework to analyse accountability in crises and looks at how this affects trust in government. Crises test the fabric of governing institutions. Threatening core societal values, they force elected officials and public servants to make consequential decisions under pressure and uncertainty. Public trust in governing institutions is intrinsically linked to the ability to hold decision-makers accountable for the crucial decisions they make. The book presents empirical evidence from examination of the general bases for accountability in public administration, and at the accountability mechanisms of specific administrative systems, before focusing on longer term policy changes. The author finds that within the complex web of bureaucratic and political moves democratic processes have been undermined across time contributing to misplaced and declining trust in governing institutions. Accountability in Crises and Public Trust in Governing Institutions will be of interest to students, scholars and practitioners of public policy, political leadership and governance.

Having established a persuasive conception of leadership, Rejai and Phillips apply it to major thinkers from Plato to Sigmund Freud and Erik Erikson. They find a major shift in leadership theory associated with World War II. Prewar theories are seen as limited and defective in that they posit a vision on the part of the leader and his ability to impose that vision on the followers; postwar theories stress, in addition, a shared vision and leader-follower interaction.

A leader's view of leadership, Rejai and Phillips find, is constrained by the person's conception of human nature; the lighter the conception of human nature, the more flexible the nature of leadership; the darker the view of human nature, the more rigid the nature of leadership. This book will be of particular interest to scholars, students, and other researchers involved with political theory and leadership studies.

Stanley Baldwin held various ministerial positions in Lloyd George's coalition government before succeeding him as prime minister, alternating the premiership with Ramsay MacDonald over the next 14 years. This book looks at his time in office, noted by the General Strike and the abdication of Edward VIII.

Each volume in the new American Presidents Reference Series is organized around an individual presidency and gathers a host of biographical, analytical, and primary source historical material that will analyze the presidency and bring the president, his administration, and his times to life. The series focuses on key moments in U.S. political history as seen through the eyes of the most influential presidents to take the oath of office. Unique headnotes provide the context to data, tables and excerpted primary source documents. Harry Truman was born on May 8, 1884. He served with distinction during World War I as a commander of an artillery battery, and he ultimately attained the rank of major. In 1922, with the support of political boss Tom Pendergast, Truman was elected as a county judge. He lost reelection, but then won again as presiding judge in 1926 and 1930. In 1934 Truman was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he supported President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal policies and entry into World War II. When Vice President Henry Wallace alienated Democratic Party leaders, Truman was nominated for vice president. On April 12, 1945, eighty-two days into Truman's vice presidency, Roosevelt died in Warm Springs, Georgia. At the age of sixty-one, Truman was sworn in as the thirty-third president of the United States. Key events during the Truman presidency include victory in World War II and Truman's decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan, the start of the cold war with the Soviet Union and its eastern European satellites, the Marshall Plan, the Berlin airlift, the Fair Deal, price-control legislation, and the McCarthy hearings. In March 1952 Truman announced that he would not seek reelection. Harry S. Truman died on December 26, 1972. This new volume on the presidency of Harry S. Truman will cover campaigns, elections, and the Pendergast connection, Senator Truman, particularly his chairmanship of the Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program, FDR, World War II, and the atomic bomb decision, Joseph McCarthy, the cold war, and the police action in Korea, civil rights.

Lord Hankey (1877-1963) was a British civil servant and the first Cabinet Secretary, a top aide to Prime Minister David Lloyd George and the War Cabinet that directed Britain in World War One. Mostly derived from the author's diaries, which began in March 1915, this study describes how Lord Hankey contributed to the development of the British system of Cabinet Government during the war years. First published in 1961, the two-volume collection is a history of the Supreme Command of the War; the conduct of the war, the development of the Supreme Command from Balfour to Lloyd George, and the emergence of the Cabinet Secretariat from the Secretariat of the War Cabinet. It contains intimate glimpses of the statesmen, sailors and soldiers who guided affairs towards 1918. This is a fascinating first-hand examination of the people who influenced the conduct of the war, and will be of particular value to students interested in its diplomatic history.

Lionel `Rusty' Bernstein was arrested at Liliesleaf Farm, Rivonia, on 11 July 1963 and tried for sabotage, alongside Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki and other leaders of the African National Congress and Umkhonto we Sizwe in what came to be known as the Rivonia Trial.

He was acquitted in June 1964, but was immediately rearrested. After being released on bail, he fled with his wife Hilda into exile, followed soon afterwards by their family. This classic text, first published in 1999, is a remarkable man's personal memoir of a life in South African resistance politics from the late 1930s to the 1960s.

In recalling the events in which he participated, and the way in which the apartheid regime affected the lives of those involved in the opposition movements, Rusty Bernstein provides valuable insights into the social and political history of the era.

This book deals with the sudden demise of Islamists in Egypt and prospects for democratization. It provides an overview of the different causes of the downfall of Morsi and the Islamists in Egypt. Additionally, it is posited that Morsi's coup-proofing strategy, which was modeled after Mubarak's, was responsible for the military turning against him. The author also argues that the Muslim Brotherhood's belief system played a major role in their downfall. The strained civil-military relations in Egypt are examined, as well as its likely future. This project will be of interest to diplomats; journalists; International Affairs specialists, strategists, or scholars of Egyptian politics and the Arab Spring; and anyone interested in social movements and democratization in the Middle East.

Lord Hankey (1877-1963) was a British civil servant and the first Cabinet Secretary, a top aide to Prime Minister David Lloyd George and the War Cabinet that directed Britain in World War One. Mostly derived from the author's diaries, which begin in March 1915, this study describes how Lord Hankey contributed to the development of the British system of Cabinet Government during the war years. First published in 1961, the two-volume collection is a history of the Supreme Command of the War; the conduct of the war, the development of the Supreme Command from Balfour to Lloyd George, and the emergence of the Cabinet Secretariat from the Secretariat of the War Cabinet. It contains intimate glimpses of the statesmen, sailors and soldiers who guided affairs towards 1918. This is a fascinating first-hand examination of the people who influenced the conduct of the war, and will be of particular value to students interested in its diplomatic history.

The authors examine the relationship between President George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress to explore political leadership in American politics. Six case studies make clear that individual leaders in both the Congress and the administration provide the direction, coherence, and energy that leadership requires. Two case studies concentrate on solutions devised to resolve long-standing policy issues that had been the center of controversy even before Bush's election: education reform and campaign finance reform. Two cases focus on issues that arose in the aftermath of 9/11: intelligence reform and creation of the Department of Homeland Security. Two are drawn from Bush's second term: the response to Hurricane Katrina and the failed effort to reform Social Security. The authors draw several general conclusions. Direction, coherence and energy are provided by multiple national leaders, not just by the president. Like other presidents, Bush sought to dominate national policy-making but ultimately found it necessary to effect tactical and policy reversals, actions inconsistent with his image as an uncompromising man of principle. Legislative success often depended on the skills of Bush's allies and particularly on the efforts of bipartisan and sometimes bicameral 'tandems' who forged compromises across party and institutional lines that made progress possible.

This book builds on the strengths of the previous volumes by the same author to provide the most detailed and nuanced account of the man, his politics and his profound influence on Russian politics, foreign policy and society. However, this is not a new edition of the earlier books but is an entirely new work. The focus now is on the dilemmas of power since 2008. There is a brief biographical sketch of Vladimir Putin and much analysis of his ideas and policies, but the book now focuses on the systemic contradictions that have created a blockage on modernisation and a stalemate in politics, Putin's role as Prime Minister since 2008 and his political successes and failures, analysis of the implications of Putin's third term as President and the 2011-12 electoral cycle and the ensuing crisis which led to thousands protesting on the streets This work assesses the achievements and failing of Putin's rule, but above all tries to make sense of contemporary developments. This is the definitive account of Putin and is essential reading for all scholars and students of Russian politics.

This edited volume focuses on the democratic performance of regimes in some of the least populous countries on the African continent. Using a framework developed by Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way, each case study provides in-depth analysis of democratic contestation in the following arenas: electoral, judiciary, legislature, media, and civil society. This volume also examines the key factors that push these regimes in either democratic or authoritarian directions, and how these regimes are likely to evolve in the future.

First Published in 1967. The method or system of government in the United Kingdom and the self-governing Dominions may be described with sufficient accuracy as that of a political democracy under the Crown. This study is published because the author is convinced that constant research into, and analysis of, all the present-day implications and tendencies of such method or system are essential.

To limit executive power, the Founding Fathers created fixed presidential terms of four years, giving voters regular opportunities to remove their leaders. Americans also discovered more dramatic paths for disempowering--or coming razor-close to removing--chief executives: undermining the president's authority, a preemptive strike to derail a presidential candidacy, assassination, impeachment, resignation, and declaration of inability. Although the United States has gone decades without assassination or resignation, the most dramatic forms of presidential removal, getting rid of a president or a potential president is a political reality-just ask not president Hillary Clinton. How To Get Rid of a President presents the dark side of the nation's history, from the Constitutional Convention through the aftermath of the shocking 2016 election, a stew of election dramas, national tragedies and presidential exits mixed with party intrigue, political betrayal and backroom scheming. It is a briskly paced, darkly humorous voyage through historical events relevant to today's headlines, highlighting the many ways that presidents have been undermined and nearly kicked out, how each method of removal offers opportunities and dangers for the republic and the thorny ethical issues that surround the choice to resist, disobey, or eject a president.

Helen Macfarlane, a young British woman, was living in Vienna when she was radicalized by the 1848 Revolution. On returning to England in 1850, she became a journalist for the radical wing of the Chartist movement. The Chartists received support from such luminaries as Karl Marx and Fredrich Engles; the latter had written on the movement's political significance. It was Marx who described Macfarlane as the most original writer in the Chartist press. Macfarlane was the first English translator of The Communist Manifesto. Her original translation is included in this edition. She is also the first of the British to comment, critically and extensively, on the revolutionary implications of Hegel's philosophy. After having been hidden for a century her stature as a revolutionary, writer, and feminist emerges in David Black's seminal work. With diligent research into her life and work, Black, in Helen Macfarlane: A Feminist, Revolutionary Journalist, and Philosopher in Mid 19th Century England, recreates her intellectual and political world at a key turning point in European history. This work also includes Macfarlane's original translation of The Communist Manifesto.

Many conservative extremists have argued that Obama was advancing a socialist agenda, immersing himself in African-American radicalism, and pushing big government liberal policies during his first term. The Republican Party, we once knew, has been pushed to the extreme right and has rendered itself unwilling to compromise with the first African American president in order to credit him with any degree of success. The Party's chief goal was to take back the White House in the 2012 presidential election by any means necessary to push their radical agenda, as some have boldly stated. With the help of Republican governors in certain swing states, the Republican Party knew it had a chance to win the White House by passing voter suppression ID laws. Consequently, from white church pulpits to the political arena, conservative radicals have divided the American electorate and have played on the irrational apocalyptic fears of many that Obama will destroy the exceptional nature of America. Conservative radicals have shaped our national debate and have driven our discourse with eliminationist and racialized rhetoric against the Obama presidency. Consequently, many anti-Obama narratives have hit the bookstores and have consumed the intellectual life of an overly suspicious, low information general public where many lack the critical and political thought about ways they need to know to emancipate themselves from destructive prevailing ideologies. Obama's Political Saga serves as a counter-narrative to the paranoid politics of anti-intellectual and anti-science radicals and hopefully provides a reasonable discussion about Obama's political saga in his first term. These anti-Obama narratives have resurrected themselves from the Jim Crow era, influencing a segment of the conservative base to believe that equal rights for African Americans, other Americans of color, and women would threaten the social order by diminishing white (male) privilege. Therefore, we need counter-narratives to help us engage in genuine political and intellectual debate about the first African American president and his legacy.

The authors examine the relationship between President George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress to explore political leadership in American politics. Six case studies make clear that individual leaders in both the Congress and the administration provide the direction, coherence, and energy that leadership requires. Two case studies concentrate on solutions devised to resolve long-standing policy issues that had been the center of controversy even before Bush's election: education reform and campaign finance reform. Two cases focus on issues that arose in the aftermath of 9/11: intelligence reform and creation of the Department of Homeland Security. Two are drawn from Bush's second term: the response to Hurricane Katrina and the failed effort to reform Social Security. The authors draw several general conclusions. Direction, coherence and energy are provided by multiple national leaders, not just by the president. Like other presidents, Bush sought to dominate national policy-making but ultimately found it necessary to effect tactical and policy reversals, actions inconsistent with his image as an uncompromising man of principle. Legislative success often depended on the skills of Bush's allies and particularly on the efforts of bipartisan and sometimes bicameral "tandems" who forged compromises across party and institutional lines that made progress possible.

In the wake of the 2004 election, pundits were shocked at exit polling that showed that 22% of voters thought "moral values" was the most important issue at stake. People on both sides of the political divide believed this was the key to victory for George W. Bush, who professes a deep and abiding faith in God. While some fervent Bush supporters see him as a man chosen by God for the White House, opponents see his overt commitment to Christianity as a dangerous and unprecedented bridging of the gap between church and state.
In fact, Gary Scott Smith shows, none of this is new. Religion has been a major part of the presidency since George Washington's first inaugural address. Despite the mounting interest in the role of religion in American public life, we actually know remarkably little about the faith of our presidents. Was Thomas Jefferson an atheist, as his political opponents charged? What role did Lincoln's religious views play in his handling of slavery and the Civil War? How did born-again Southern Baptist Jimmy Carter lose the support of many evangelicals? Is George W. Bush, as his critics often claim, a captive of the religious right? In this fascinating book, Smith answers these questions and many more. He takes a sweeping look at the role religion has played in presidential politics and policies. Drawing on extensive archival research, Smith paints compelling portraits of the religious lives and presidencies of eleven chief executives for whom religion was particularly important.
Faith and the Presidency meticulously examines what each of its subjects believed and how those beliefs shaped their presidencies and, in turn, the course of our history.

Each volume in the new American Presidents Reference Series is organized around an individual presidency and gathers a host of biographical, analytical, and primary source historical material that will analyze the presidency and bring the president, his administration, and his times to life. The series focuses on key moments in U.S. political history as seen through the eyes of the most influential presidents to take the oath of office. Unique headnotes provide the context to data, tables and excerpted primary source documents. Woodrow Wilson was born on December 28, 1856. He taught history and later political science at Bryn Mawr College, Wesleyan University, and Princeton University. In 1902 he was unanimously elected as president of Princeton. In 1910 he was elected governor of New Jersey. On the forty-sixth ballot at the 1912 Democratic National Convention, Wilson was nominated as the party's presidential candidate. Benefiting from Theodore Roosevelt's ticket-splitting third-party nomination, Wilson was elected the twenty-eighth president of the United States. Key events during the Wilson administration include the reduction of the tariff, enactment of the federal reserve system, creation of the Federal Trade Commission, his narrow reelection against Charles Evans Hughes, Wilson's Fourteen Points, and the League of Nations. On October 2, 1919, Wilson suffered a stroke, which left him incapacitated. Historians have concluded that his wife, Edith, conducted much of the affairs of state on behalf of the invalid Wilson. Woodrow Wilson died on February 3, 1924. This new volume on the presidency of Woodrow Wilson will cover his reformist-natured domestic policies, World War I, the Fourteen Points, and the League of Nations, the role of Edith Bolling Wilson in the Wilson presidency.

This history of presidential studies surveys the views of leading thinkers and scholars about the constitutional powers of the highest office in the land from the founding to the present.

This history of presidential studies surveys the views of leading thinkers and scholars about the constitutional powers of the highest office in the land from the founding to the present.

Helen Macfarlane, a young British woman, was living in Vienna when she was radicalized by the 1848 Revolution. On returning to England in 1850, she became a journalist for the radical wing of the Chartist movement. The Chartists received support from such luminaries as Karl Marx and Fredrich Engles; the latter had written on the movement's political significance. It was Marx who described Macfarlane as the most original writer in the Chartist press. Macfarlane was the first English translator of The Communist Manifesto. Her original translation is included in this edition. She is also the first of the British to comment, critically and extensively, on the revolutionary implications of Hegel's philosophy. After having been hidden for a century her stature as a revolutionary, writer, and feminist emerges in David Black's seminal work. With diligent research into her life and work, Black, in Helen Macfarlane: A Feminist, Revolutionary Journalist, and Philosopher in Mid 19th Century England, recreates her intellectual and political world at a key turning point in European history. This work also includes Macfarlane's original translation of The Communist Manifesto.