Power, the Presidency, and the Preamble: Interpretive Essays on Selected Presidents of the United States

by SAUNDERS ROBERT M.

• ISBN13: 9780275973353
• ISBN10: 0275973352
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-11-01
• Publisher: Greenwood Pub Group

Summary

How can Americans develop a coherent overview of the presidency? The Preamble of the Constitution provides a historical foundation to assess the major patterns, events, and policies of seven important presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Harry S. Truman. From the 1790s to the 1950s, presidents have faced challenges to the meaning and existence of the Union, the definition and implementation of justice, the necessity of domestic tranquility, the formulation of defense policy to enhance national security, the advancement of general welfare, and the protection and promotion of liberty within the context of their times. This conceptual framework allows readers to study long-term continuity and change in the presidency and in America. In an age of specialization, when most historical studies of individual presidents are hundreds, even thousands of pages long, Saunders gives readers a brief, interpretive overview of select presidents. The elegant, flexible, and understandable framework of the Preamble provides the historical foundation for the assessment of the presidency and the individuals occupying this important office. Readers will be able to use this assessable framework to study other presidents, bringing the discussion of the presidency as an evolving institution up to the present day.

Author Biography

Robert M. Saunders has a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. He has taught at universities in the United States, Singapore, the Czech Republic, and Hong Kong where he was a visiting Fulbright Scholar. He has published articles in numerous scholarly journals

Table of Contents

Introduction	ix
George Washington, Power Politics, and the Preamble	1	(12)
Thomas Jefferson and the Paradox of Power	13	(22)
Andrew Jackson: Personal Insecurity, Political Power, and the Preamble	35	(16)
Abraham Lincoln: Reason, Power, and the Preamble	51	(18)
Woodrow Wilson: Political Power Broker and the Preamble	69	(22)
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR): Political Power, the Market System, and the Preamble	91	(26)
Harry S. Truman: Power, the American Mission, and the Preamble	117	(20)
Epilogue	137	(14)
Index	151