FDR's Gambit

FDR's Gambit PDF Author: Laura Kalman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197539297
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 441

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Book Description
A comprehensive, engaging, and revisionist account of the Court fight that ties it to contemporary policy debates. In the last past few years, liberals concerned about the prospect of long-term conservative dominance of the federal courts have revived an idea that famously crashed and burned in the 1930s: court packing. Not surprisingly, today's court packing advocates have run into a wall of opposition, with most citing the 1930s episode as one FDR's greatest failures. In early 1937, Roosevelt-fresh off a landslide victory-stunned the country when he proposed a plan to expand the size of the court by up to six justices. Today, that scheme is generally seen as an act of hubris-an instance where FDR failed to read Congress and the public properly. In FDR's Gambit, the eminent legal historian Laura Kalman challenges the conventional wisdom by telling the story as it unfolded, without the distortions of hindsight. Indeed, while scholars have portrayed the Court Bill as the ill-fated brainchild of a hubristic President made overbold by victory, Kalman argues to the contrary that acumen, not arrogance, accounted for Roosevelt's actions. Far from erring tragically from the beginning, FDR came very close to getting additional justices, and the Court itself changed course. As Kalman shows, the episode suggests that proposing a change in the Court might give the justices reason to consider whether their present course is endangering the institution and its vital role in a liberal democracy. Based on extensive archival research, FDR's Gambit offers a novel perspective on the long-term effects of court packing's failure, as a legacy that remains with us today. Whether or not it is the right remedy for today's troubles, Kalman argues that court packing does not deserve to be recalled as one fated for failure in 1937.

FDR's Gambit

FDR's Gambit PDF Author: Laura Kalman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197539297
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 441

Get Book

Book Description
A comprehensive, engaging, and revisionist account of the Court fight that ties it to contemporary policy debates. In the last past few years, liberals concerned about the prospect of long-term conservative dominance of the federal courts have revived an idea that famously crashed and burned in the 1930s: court packing. Not surprisingly, today's court packing advocates have run into a wall of opposition, with most citing the 1930s episode as one FDR's greatest failures. In early 1937, Roosevelt-fresh off a landslide victory-stunned the country when he proposed a plan to expand the size of the court by up to six justices. Today, that scheme is generally seen as an act of hubris-an instance where FDR failed to read Congress and the public properly. In FDR's Gambit, the eminent legal historian Laura Kalman challenges the conventional wisdom by telling the story as it unfolded, without the distortions of hindsight. Indeed, while scholars have portrayed the Court Bill as the ill-fated brainchild of a hubristic President made overbold by victory, Kalman argues to the contrary that acumen, not arrogance, accounted for Roosevelt's actions. Far from erring tragically from the beginning, FDR came very close to getting additional justices, and the Court itself changed course. As Kalman shows, the episode suggests that proposing a change in the Court might give the justices reason to consider whether their present course is endangering the institution and its vital role in a liberal democracy. Based on extensive archival research, FDR's Gambit offers a novel perspective on the long-term effects of court packing's failure, as a legacy that remains with us today. Whether or not it is the right remedy for today's troubles, Kalman argues that court packing does not deserve to be recalled as one fated for failure in 1937.

The Court at War

The Court at War PDF Author: Cliff Sloan
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 1541736451
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 462

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Book Description
The inside story of how one president forever altered the most powerful legal institution in the country—with consequences that endure today By the summer of 1941, in the ninth year of his presidency, Franklin Roosevelt had molded his Court. He had appointed seven of the nine justices—the most by any president except George Washington—and handpicked the chief justice. But the wartime Roosevelt Court had two faces. One was bold and progressive, the other supine and abject, cowed by the charisma of the revered president. The Court at War explores this pivotal period. It provides a cast of unforgettable characters in the justices—from the mercurial, Vienna-born intellectual Felix Frankfurter to the Alabama populist Hugo Black; from the western prodigy William O. Douglas, FDR’s initial pick to be his running mate in 1944, to Roosevelt’s former attorney general and Nuremberg prosecutor Robert Jackson. The justices’ shameless capitulation and unwillingness to cross their beloved president highlight the dangers of an unseemly closeness between Supreme Court justices and their political patrons. But the FDR Court’s finest moments also provided a robust defense of individual rights, rights the current Court has put in jeopardy. Sloan’s intimate portrait is a vivid, instructive tale for modern times.

The Defining Moment

The Defining Moment PDF Author: Jonathan Alter
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 456

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Book Description
In this dramatic and authoritative account, the author shows how FDR used his famous "fear itself" speech and the first hundred days in office to lift the country from despair and paralysis and transform the American presidency.

U.S. Presidents as Orators

U.S. Presidents as Orators PDF Author: Halford R. Ryan
Publisher: Greenwood
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
First systematic critique of the rhetoric of 21 presidents focusing on the nexus of oratory and politics.

FDR and the Soviet Union

FDR and the Soviet Union PDF Author: Mary E. Glantz
Publisher: Modern War Studies
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
Throughout his presidency, Franklin Roosevelt was determined to pursue a peaceful accommodation with an increasingly powerful Soviet Union, an inclination reinforced by the onset of world war. Roosevelt knew that defeating the Axis powers would require major contributions by the Soviets and their Red Army, and so, despite his misgivings about Stalin's expansionist motives, he pushed for friendlier relations. Yet almost from the moment he was inaugurated, lower-level officials challenged FDR's ability to carry out this policy. Mary Glantz analyzes tensions shaping the policy stance of the United States toward the Soviet Union before, during, and immediately after World War II. Focusing on the conflicts between a president who sought close relations between the two nations and the diplomatic and military officers who opposed them, she shows how these career officers were able to resist and shape presidential policy-and how their critical views helped shape the parameters of the subsequent Cold War. Venturing into the largely uncharted waters of bureaucratic politics, Glantz examines overlooked aspects of wartime relations between Washington and Moscow to highlight the roles played by U.S. personnel in the U.S.S.R. in formulating and implementing policies governing the American-Soviet relationship. She takes readers into the American embassy in Moscow to show how individuals like Ambassadors Joseph Davies, Lawrence Steinhadt, and Averell Harriman and U.S. military attachs like Joseph Michela influenced policy, and reveals how private resistance sometimes turned into public dispute. She also presents new material on the controversial military attach/lend-lease director Phillip Faymonville, a largely neglected officer who understood the Soviet system and supported Roosevelt's policy. Deftly combining military with diplomatic history, Glantz traces these philosophical and policy battles to show how difficult it was for even a highly popular president like Roosevelt to overcome such entrenched and determined opposition. Although he reorganized federal offices and appointed ambassadors who shared his views, in the end he was unable to outlast his bureaucratic opponents or change their minds. With his death, anti-Soviet factions rushed into the policymaking vacuum to become the primary architects of Truman's Cold War "containment" policy. A case study in foreign relations, high-level policymaking, and civil-military relations, FDR and the Soviet Union enlarges our understanding of the ideologies and events that set the stage for the Cold War. It adds a new dimension to our understanding of Soviet-American relations as it sheds new light on the surprising power of those in low places.

Newsweek

Newsweek PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Current events
Languages : en
Pages : 772

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Book Description


Right Star Rising: A New Politics, 1974-1980

Right Star Rising: A New Politics, 1974-1980 PDF Author: Laura Kalman
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393076385
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 505

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Book Description
Tells the history of the Ford-Carter years, discusses the relevance of the period's politics on today's issues, and explains its shaping of the current political environment.

America in World Politics

America in World Politics PDF Author: Peter A. Poole
Publisher: Praeger Publishers
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description


Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature

Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Periodicals
Languages : en
Pages : 1986

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Book Description


FDR's Last Year, April 1944-April 1945

FDR's Last Year, April 1944-April 1945 PDF Author: Jim Bishop
Publisher: William Morrow &Company
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 712

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Book Description
A carefully researched chronicle of Roosevelt's life and work during his final months.