The American Presidency ─ Multidisciplinary Perspectives

The editors (all affiliated with the Heidelberg Center for American Studies, Germany) present 15 essays that explore the American presidency from a variety of disciplinary and cross-disciplinary perspectives. Topics include the limits to presidential power and the broad claims of the George W. Bush administration in the areas of war and foreign policy, the extent to which the presidency of the second Bush can be considered an "imperial" presidency as articulated by Arthur M. Schlesinger, the symbolic power of the presidency, the rhetorical construction of republican politics as a "peaceful domestic space" by Thomas Jefferson, the rhetorical construction of leadership by Abraham Lincoln, the rhetorical deployment of the family by Theodore Roosevelt as an alternative to the individualistic visions of the Social Darwinists; the rhetorical strategies of Hillary Clinton in It Takes a Village as a reflection of the ideological conundrum of women seeking political office, the nature of political leadership in Philip Roth's The Plot Against America, representations of the presidency in the movies Air Force One and Independence Day, representations of women as president in television and literature, and the attitudes and political actions of US presidents towards African Americans. Annotation ©2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)