War Powers : How the Imperial Presidency Hijacked the Constitution

by Irons, Peter

• ISBN13: 9780805075939
• ISBN10: 0805075933
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-08-05
• Publisher: Metropolitan Books

Summary

n insightful analysis and rousing history, War Powers examines a fundamental question in the development of the American empire: What constraints does the Constitution place on our territorial expansion, military intervention, occupation of foreign countries, and on the power the president may exercise over American foreign policy? Worried about the dangers of unchecked executive power, the Founding Fathers deliberately assigned Congress the sole authority to make war. But the last time Congress declared war was on December 8, 1941, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Since then, every president from Harry Truman to George W. Bush has used military force in pursuit of imperial objectives, while Congress and the Supreme Court have virtually abdicated their responsibilities to check presidential power. In vivid detail, Peter Irons recounts this story of subversion from above, tracing presidents' increasing willingness to ignore congressional authority and even suspend civil liberties.

Author Biography

Professor of political science at the University of California at San Diego, Peter Irons is the author of numerous books, including A People's History of the Supreme Court, and editor and narrator of May It Please the Court. His writings have earned him an uprecedented five Silver Gavel Awards from the American Bar Association.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(179)
1. In the Beginning: "The Power of War and Peace"	11	(17)
2. "Not Only War But Public War": Congressional Authority in the New Nation	28	(17)
3. "A War Unjust and Unnecessary": Seizing a Continental Empire	45	(21)
4. "The Great Exigencies of Government": The Civil War	66	(21)
5. "Remember the Maine": The Birth of Imperial America	87	(15)
6. "We Must Have No Criticism Now": The War to End All Wars	102	(18)
7. "The Sole Organ of the Nation": The Birth of the Imperial Presidency	120	(12)
8. "The Very Brink of Constitutional Power": Japanese Americans and German Saboteurs	132	(25)
9. "A World-Wide American Empire": The Imperial Presidency in the Cold War	157	(23)
10. "What Every Schoolboy Knows": Vietnam and Congressional Abdication	180	(25)
11. "We Were Going to War": From the Gulf War to Afghanistan	205	(16)
12. "We Will Not Hesitate to Act Alone": The American Colossus in the Age of Preemptive War	221	(21)
13. "The Constitution Is Just a Piece of Paper": Empire vs. Democracy	242	(21)
Conclusion	263	(12)
Notes	275	(12)
Suggested Readings and Sources	287	(4)
Index	291