Introduction

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For historical perspective on the current elections, my favorite book is Jim Kloppenberg’s intellectual biography Reading Obama: Dreams, Hope, and the American Political Tradition, where he shows how much Obama has been influenced by the philosophical tradition of pragmatism that emerged largely from William James and John Dewey and continued to flourish through the work of Richard Rorty, Hilary Putnam, and others. A true intellectual president who is a pragmatist?

For a more long term view and historical assessment of our presidents, read Fred Greenstein’s classic book on presidential leadership called The Strategic President, in which the author offers a series of bottom-line judgments on each of his twelve subjects from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first hundred days to the momentous events of George W. Bush’s administration.

If you ever needed convincing that personal politics and relationships between leaders really do matter, check out Frank Costigliola’s Roosevelt’s Lost Alliances: How Personal Politics Helped Start the Cold War.

And finally, Amy Gutmann’s and Dennis Thompson’s The Spirit of Compromise: Why Governing Demands It and Campaigning Undermines It analyzes some fascinating historical and recent examples of Washington gridlock and dysfunction and presents some fascinating ideas of how to overcome this. Judy Woodruff, PBS Newshour anchor, wished that “every policymaker would read it!”

–Brigitta van Rheinberg, Editor-in-Chief, Executive Editor, History

Exclusive Excerpt

Click here to download an article on the history of Presidential leadership since 1932

Excerpted from The Concise Princeton Encyclopedia of American Political History.

Featured Book

Reading Obama
Dreams, Hope, and the American Political Tradition
James T. Kloppenberg

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