The Politics of Corruption examines the U.S. presidential election of 1824 as a critical contest in the nation's political history, full of colorful characters and brimming with unexpected twists. This election inaugurated the transition from the sedate, elitist elections of the Jeffersonian era and propelled developments toward the showier yet also more democratized presidential races that came to characterize Jacksonian America. The Republican Party fielded all five candidates in 1824, a veritable who's who of early republic notables: treasury secretary William Crawford, secretary of state John Quincy Adams, secretary of war John C. Calhoun, speaker of the House Henry Clay, and War of 1812 hero Andrew Jackson. This book recasts the 1824 election-conventionally regarded as a dull, intraparty affair-as one of the most exciting contests in American history. Using the correspondence and diaries of the principals involved, Callahan chronicles the ways in which the five candidates innovated political practices by creating dynamic organizations, sponsoring energetic newspaper networks, staging congressional legislative battles, and spreading vicious personal attacks against each other. In the end, Calhoun's smear campaign fatally undermined front-runner Crawford, while self-styled political outsider Jackson successfully equated regular politics with corruption yet still lost the contest to Washington's ultimate insider, John Quincy Adams. It was a defeat Jackson would not forget, animating him to fundamentally change the ways American politics was conducted ever after.

A theoretical examination of the concepts of the citizen, citizenship, and leadership, A Crisis of Leadership and the Role of Citizens in Black America: Leaders of the New School proposes to develop a prototype or model of effective Black leadership. Furthermore, it examines "citizenship habits" of the Black community based on their economic standing, educational attainment, participation in the criminal justice system, and health and family structure. It tracks data in these four categories from 1970 to today, measuring effective leadership by the improvement or decline in the majority of African Americans standing in these four categories. This book concludes that African Americans have negative perceptions of themselves as U.S. citizens, which thus produce "bad citizenship habits." Additionally, ineffective Black leaders since the Civil Rights era have been unwilling to demonstrate the purpose and significance of service, particularly to the poor and disadvantaged members of the Black community. Contemporary Black leaders (post-Civil Rights Era) have focused primarily on self-promotion, careerism, and middle-class interests. A new type of leader is needed, one that stresses unity and reinforces commitment to the group as a whole by establishing new institutions that introduce community-building.

What does it take to get elected president of the United States—"leader of the free world"? This book gives readers insight into the major issues and events surrounding American presidential elections across more than two centuries, from the earliest years of the Republic through the campaigns of the 21st century. The race for the presidency encapsulates the broader changes in American democratic culture. This book provides insight into the major issues and events surrounding American presidential elections across more than two centuries, from the earliest years of the Republic through the campaigns of the 21st century. Readers will be able to see and understand how presidential campaigns have evolved over time, and how and why the current state of campaigning for president came into being.

Don't miss one of our greatest presidents' bestselling autobiographies in his own words. Ronald Reagan's story is a work of major historical importance, a narrative that "The Washington Times" calls "one of our classic American success stories."
Few presidents have accomplished more, or been so effective in changing the direction of government in ways that are both fundamental and lasting, than Ronald Reagan. Certainly no president has more dramatically raised the American spirit, or done so much to restore national strength and self-confidence.
Here, then, is a truly American success story--a great and inspiring one. From modest beginnings as the son of a shoe salesman in Tampico, Illinois, Ronald Reagan achieved first a distinguished career in Hollywood and then, as governor of California and as president of the most powerful nation in the world, a career of public service unique in our history.
Ronald Reagan's account of that rise is told here with all the uncompromising candor, modesty, and wit that made him perhaps the most able communicator ever to occupy the White House, and also with the sense of drama of a gifted natural storyteller.
He tells us, with warmth and pride, of his early years and of the elements that made him, in later life, a leader of such stubborn integrity, courage, and clear-minded optimism. Reading the account of this childhood, we understand how his parents, struggling to make ends meet despite family problems and the rigors of the Depression, shaped his belief in the virtues of American life--the need to help others, the desire to get ahead and to get things done, the deep trust in the basic goodness, values, and sense of justice of the American people--virtues that few presidents have expressed more eloquently than Ronald Reagan.
With absolute authority and a keen eye for the details and the anecdotes that humanize history, Ronald Reagan takes the reader behind the scenes of his extraordinary career, from his first political experiences as president of the Screen Actors Guild (including his first meeting with a beautiful young actress who was later to become Nancy Reagan) to such high points of his presidency as the November 1985 Geneva meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev, during which Reagan invited the Soviet leader outside for a breath of fresh air and then took him off for a walk and a man-to-man chat, without aides, that set the course for arms reduction and charted the end of the Cold War.
Here he reveals what went on behind his decision to enter politics and run for the governorship of California, the speech nominating Barry Goldwater that first made Reagan a national political figure, his race for the presidency, his relations with the members of his own cabinet, and his frustrations with Congress.
He gives us the details of the great themes and dramatic crises of his eight years in office, from Lebanon to Grenada, from the struggle to achieve arms control to tax reform, from Iran-Contra to the visits abroad that did so much to reestablish the United States in the eyes of the world as a friendly and peaceful power. His narrative is full of insights, from the unseen dangers of Gorbachev's first visit to the United States to Reagan's own personal correspondence with major foreign leaders, as well as his innermost feelings about life in the White House, the assassination attempt, his family--and the enduring love between himself and Mrs. Reagan.
"An American Life "is a warm, richly detailed, and deeply human book, a brilliant self-portrait, a significant work of history.

Volume 6 of The Papers of James Monroe continues to expand its detailed view of the life and career of James Monroe, a key founding father of the United States and its modern republic. By examining more than 500 primary source materials from April 1811 to March 1814, during which Monroe served as secretary of state and briefly as interim secretary of war under President James Madison, readers gain invaluable insight into the history of the United States during his lifetime. The Papers of James Monroe: Selected Correspondence and Papers, April 1811–March 1814 is the sixth volume in an ongoing series that illuminates a critical period in American history and provides access to the massive and widely scattered Monroe Papers, enabling scholars to revisit Monroe's role in the birth and infancy of the United States. The volume includes more than 500 documents, mainly correspondence to and from James Monroe and other important documents written by him. This ongoing series of primary documents offers the most comprehensive account and documentation of Monroe's life, the study of which enables deep insights into the formative events of the American republic. These historical primary documents are accompanied by annotations that help readers to better understand the context of Monroe's thoughts, opinions, and actions. The documents included in this volume date from Monroe's appointment in April 1811 as secretary of state under President James Madison to the midpoint of Monroe's term in that office in March 1814.

Presidential Image has become an integral part of the campaign, presidency and legacy of Modern American presidents. Across the 20th century to the age of Trump, presidential image has dominated media coverage and public consciousness, winning elections, gaining support for their leadership in office and shaping their reputation in history. Is the creation of the presidential image part of a carefully conceived public relations strategy or result of the president's critics and opponents? Can the way the media interpret a presidents' actions and words alter their image? And how much influence do cultural outputs contribute to the construction of a presidential image? Using ten presidential case studies. this edited collection features contributions from scholars and political journalists from the UK and America, to analyse aspects of Presidential Image that shaped their perceived effectiveness as America's leader, and to explore this complex, controversial, and continuous element of modern presidential politics.

How does a peanut farmer become Governor of Georgia and President of the United States? Only in America could such a story be true. br>As a small child, Jimmy Carter set his sights on the United States Naval Academy. After graduation in 1946, he married Rosalynn Smith, and six years later, Carter followed the brilliant Captain Hyman G. Rickover into the uncharted waters of the Navy's nuclear submarine program. When Carter left the Navy, he returned with his young family to the fields of the family farm in Plains, Georgia. Not satisfied with the climate of injustice he witnessed in his daily life, Carter sought a political career and was elected state senator in 1962 and again in 1964. He successfully won the 1970 campaign for Governor of Georgia. In 1975, Carter announced he would run for President. Under the new Federal Election Laws only $21.8 million would be provided for the General Election Campaign. A trivial amount compared to future campaigns. An army of loyal supporters, friends, neighbours, and elected officials, known as the Peanut Brigade, joined the campaign. They traveled across the country, joining Jimmy and Rosalynn, knocking on doors, standing at factory gates, walking streets, asking voters to vote for Jimmy Carter for President. In 1976, Carter was elected the 39th President of the United States and served one term. Since leaving office, Carter has not stopped working on behalf of not just Americans, but for people worldwide. While the basics of his story are well known, they have never been told from the perspective of a ""soldier"" in the Peanut Brigade. Dorothy ""Dot"" Padgett, with an earthy, honest, and Southern voice, tells the story as if new to all of us. Humour and insight abound in this direct telling of how a peanut farmer from Georgia became President and leader of the United States. The secret is in his character, his morality, and in his being truly human.

This collection of original essays and commentary considers not merely how history has shaped the continuing struggle for racial equality, but also how backlash and resistance to racial reforms continue to dictate the state of race in America. Informed by a broad historical perspective, this book focuses primarily on the promise of Reconstruction, and the long demise of that promise. It traces the history of struggles for racial justice from the post US Civil War Reconstruction through the Jim Crow era, the Civil Rights and Voting Rights decades of the 1950s and 1960s to the present day. The book uses psychological, historical and political perspectives to put today?s struggles for justice in historical perspective, considering intersecting dynamics of race and class in inequality and the different ways that different people understand history. Ultimately, the authors question Martin Luther King, Jr.?s contention that the moral arc of the universe bends toward justice, challenging portrayals of race relations and the realization of civil rights laws as a triumph narrative. Scholars in history, political science and psychology as well as graduate students in these fields can use the issues explored in this book as a foundation for their own work on race, justice and American history. Contributors include: E.L. Ayers, T.J. Brown, S. Fein, C.N. Harold, J.M. Hayter, C.F. Irons, J.P. Thompson, E.R. Varon, K.E. Williams, E.S. Yellin

George Washington's childhood is famously the most elusive part of his life story. For centuries biographers have struggled with a lack of period documentation and an absence of late-in-life reflection in trying to imagine Washington's formative years. In George Washington Written upon the Land, Philip Levy explores this most famous of American childhoods through its relationship to the Virginia farm where much of it took place. Using approaches from biography, archaeology, folklore, and studies of landscape and material culture, Levy focuses on how different ideas about Washington's childhood functioned-what sorts of lessons they sought to teach and how different epochs and writers understood the man and the past itself. In a suggestive and far-reaching final chapter, Levy argues that Washington was present at the onset of the Anthropocene-the geologic era when human activity began to have a significant impact on world ecosystems. Interpreting Washington's childhood farm through the lens of "big" history, he encourages scholars to break down boundaries between science and social science and between human and nonhuman.

This book examines the political and economic philosophy of Chief Jeremiah Oyeniyi Obafemi Awolowo and his concepts of democratic socialism (Liberal Democratic Socialism). It studies how Chief Awolowo and his political parties, first the Action Group (AG) 1951-1966 and later the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) 1978-1983, acted in various Nigerian political settings. Chief Awolowo was a principled man, who by a Spartan self-discipline and understanding of himself, his accomplishments, failures and successes, was a fearless leader. He has set an example of leadership for a new generation of Nigerian politicians. He was not only a brilliant politician, but a highly cerebral thinker, statesman, dedicated manager, brilliant political economist, a Social Democrat, and a committed federalist. From all accounts, Chief Awolowo knew the worst and the best, laughter and sorrow, vilification and veneration, tribulations and triumphs, poverty and prosperity, failures and successes in life.

This book goes beyond examining Donald Trump as a unique and controversial President to place his election in a historical and systematic perspective. It offers an analysis of the 2016 presidential nominations and election, the economic and demographic foundations of the election of Mr. Trump, the realignment of the party system, ideological polarization in American politics, the realities of a postindustrial society locked in a global economy, and the outlook for American democracy in the twenty-first century.

With an in-depth exploration of rule by a single man and how this was seen as heroic activity, the title challenges orthodox views of ruling in the ancient world and breaks down traditional ideas about the relationship between so-called hereditary rule and tyranny. It looks at how a common heroic ideology among rulers was based upon excellence, or arete, and also surveys dynastic ruling, where rule was in some sense shared within the family or clan. Heroic Rulers examines reasons why both personal and clan-based rule was particularly unstable and its core tension with the competitive nature of Greek society, so that the question of who had the most arete was an issue of debate both from within the ruling family and from other heroic aspirants. Probing into ancient perspectives on the legitimacy and legality of rule, the title also explores the relationship between ruling and law. Law, personified as 'king' (nomos basileus), came to be seen as the ultimate source of sovereignty especially as expressed through the constitutional machinery of the city, and became an important balance and constraint for personal rule. Finally, Heroic Rulers demonstrates that monarchy, which is generally thought to have disappeared before the end of the archaic period, remained a valid political option from the Early Iron Age through to the Hellenistic period.