Schlesinger: The Imperial Historian

Schlesinger: The Imperial Historian PDF Author: Richard Aldous
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393244717
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
The first major biography of preeminent historian and intellectual Arthur Schlesinger Jr., a defining figure in Kennedy’s White House. Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. (1917–2007), known today as the architect of John F. Kennedy’s presidential legacy, blazed an extraordinary path from Harvard University to wartime London to the West Wing. The son of a pioneering historian—and a two-time Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner in his own right—Schlesinger redefined the art of presidential biography. A Thousand Days, his best-selling and immensely influential record of the Kennedy administration, cemented Schlesinger’s place as one of the nation’s greatest political image makers and a key figure of the American intellectual elite—a peer and contemporary of Reinhold Niebuhr, Isaiah Berlin, and Adlai Stevenson. The first major biography of this defining figure in Kennedy’s Camelot, Schlesinger: The Imperial Historian presents a dramatic life and career set against the backdrop of the American Century. Biographer Richard Aldous draws on oral history, rarely seen archival documents, and the official Schlesinger papers to craft a portrait of the incandescently brilliant and controversial historian who framed America’s ascent to global empire.

Schlesinger: The Imperial Historian

Schlesinger: The Imperial Historian PDF Author: Richard Aldous
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393244717
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
The first major biography of preeminent historian and intellectual Arthur Schlesinger Jr., a defining figure in Kennedy’s White House. Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. (1917–2007), known today as the architect of John F. Kennedy’s presidential legacy, blazed an extraordinary path from Harvard University to wartime London to the West Wing. The son of a pioneering historian—and a two-time Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner in his own right—Schlesinger redefined the art of presidential biography. A Thousand Days, his best-selling and immensely influential record of the Kennedy administration, cemented Schlesinger’s place as one of the nation’s greatest political image makers and a key figure of the American intellectual elite—a peer and contemporary of Reinhold Niebuhr, Isaiah Berlin, and Adlai Stevenson. The first major biography of this defining figure in Kennedy’s Camelot, Schlesinger: The Imperial Historian presents a dramatic life and career set against the backdrop of the American Century. Biographer Richard Aldous draws on oral history, rarely seen archival documents, and the official Schlesinger papers to craft a portrait of the incandescently brilliant and controversial historian who framed America’s ascent to global empire.

The Imperial Presidency

The Imperial Presidency PDF Author: Arthur Meier Schlesinger
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780618420018
Category : Executive power
Languages : en
Pages : 630

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Book Description
Publisher Description

War and the American Presidency

War and the American Presidency PDF Author: Arthur Meier Schlesinger
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393346358
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 205

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Book Description
"Historical reflections that deftly challenge the political and ideological foundations of President Bush's foreign policy."--Charles A. Kupchan, New York Times In a book that brings a magisterial command of history to the most urgent of contemporary questions, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., explores the war in Iraq, the presidency, and the future of democracy. Describing unilateralism as "the oldest doctrine in American history," Schlesinger nevertheless warns of the dangers posed by the fatal turn in U.S. policy from deterrence and containment to preventive war. He writes powerfully about George W. Bush's expansion of presidential power, reminding us nevertheless of our country's distinguished legacy of patriotism through dissent in wartime. And in a new chapter written especially for the paperback edition, he examines the historical role of religion in American politics as a background for an assessment of Bush's faith-based presidency.

Journals, 1952-2000

Journals, 1952-2000 PDF Author: Arthur Meier Schlesinger (Jr.)
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9781594201424
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 920

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Book Description
The distinguished political historian's journals provide an intimate history of post-war America, the writer's contributions to multiple presidential administrations, and his relationships with numerous cultural and intellectual figures.

The Myth of the Imperial Presidency

The Myth of the Imperial Presidency PDF Author: Dino P. Christenson
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022670436X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 295

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Book Description
Throughout American history, presidents have shown a startling power to act independently of Congress and the courts. On their own initiative, presidents have taken the country to war, abolished slavery, shielded undocumented immigrants from deportation, declared a national emergency at the border, and more, leading many to decry the rise of an imperial presidency. But given the steep barriers that usually prevent Congress and the courts from formally checking unilateral power, what stops presidents from going it alone even more aggressively? The answer, Dino P. Christenson and Douglas L. Kriner argue, lies in the power of public opinion. With robust empirical data and compelling case studies, the authors reveal the extent to which domestic public opinion limits executive might. Presidents are emboldened to pursue their own agendas when they enjoy strong public support, and constrained when they don’t, since unilateral action risks inciting political pushback, jeopardizing future initiatives, and further eroding their political capital. Although few Americans instinctively recoil against unilateralism, Congress and the courts can sway the public’s view via their criticism of unilateral policies. Thus, other branches can still check the executive branch through political means. As long as presidents are concerned with public opinion, Christenson and Kriner contend that fears of an imperial presidency are overblown.

A World Trimmed with Fur

A World Trimmed with Fur PDF Author: Jonathan Schlesinger
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 1503600688
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, booming demand for natural resources transformed China and its frontiers. Historians of China have described this process in stark terms: pristine borderlands became breadbaskets. Yet Manchu and Mongolian archives reveal a different story. Well before homesteaders arrived, wild objects from the far north became part of elite fashion, and unprecedented consumption had exhausted the region's most precious resources. In A World Trimmed with Fur, Jonathan Schlesinger uses these diverse archives to reveal how Qing rule witnessed not the destruction of unspoiled environments, but their invention. Qing frontiers were never pristine in the nineteenth century—pearlers had stripped riverbeds of mussels, mushroom pickers had uprooted the steppe, and fur-bearing animals had disappeared from the forest. In response, the court turned to "purification;" it registered and arrested poachers, reformed territorial rule, and redefined the boundary between the pristine and the corrupted. Schlesinger's resulting analysis provides a framework for rethinking the global invention of nature.

Robert Kennedy and His Times

Robert Kennedy and His Times PDF Author: Arthur Meier Schlesinger (Jr.)
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780618219285
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 1092

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Book Description
A biography of the Senator who was assassinated in 1968, stressing the public and personal forces and events that shaped his life.

Mutual Contempt: Lyndon Johnson, Robert Kennedy, and the Feud that Defined a Decade

Mutual Contempt: Lyndon Johnson, Robert Kennedy, and the Feud that Defined a Decade PDF Author: Jeff Shesol
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393345971
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 630

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Book Description
"Mutual Contempt is at once a fascinating study in character and an illuminating meditation on the role character can play in shaping history."—Michiko Kakutani, New York Times Lyndon Johnson and Robert Kennedy loathed each other. Their antagonism, propelled by clashing personalities, contrasting views, and a deep, abiding animosity, would drive them to a bitterness so deep that even civil conversation was often impossible. Played out against the backdrop of the turbulent 1960s, theirs was a monumental political battle that would shape federal policy, fracture the Democratic party, and have a lasting effect on the politics of our times. Drawing on previously unexamined recordings and documents, as well as memoirs, biographies, and scores of personal interviews, Jeff Shesol weaves the threads of this epic story into a compelling narrative that reflects the impact of LBJ and RFK's tumultuous relationship on politics, civil rights, the war on poverty, and the war in Vietnam. As Publishers Weekly noted, "This is indispensable reading for both experts on the period and newcomers to the history of that decade." "An exhaustive and fascinating history. . . . Shesol's grasp of the era's history is sure, his tale often entertaining, and his research awesome."—Russell Baker, New York Review of Books "Thorough, provocative. . . . The story assumes the dimensions of a great drama played out on a stage too vast to comprehend."—Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post (1997 Critic's Choice) "This is the most gripping political book of recent years."—Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. A New York Times Notable Book of the Year

James Buchanan

James Buchanan PDF Author: Jean H. Baker
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780805069464
Category : Presidents
Languages : en
Pages : 198

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Book Description
1. Buchanan, James, 1791-1868 2. Presidents United States Biography 3. United States - Politics and Government - 1857-1861.

A Life in the Twentieth Century

A Life in the Twentieth Century PDF Author: Arthur Meier Schlesinger (Jr.)
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780618219254
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 590

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Book Description
The author considers events that occurred during his lifetime and that contributed to America's rise to world power status, as told through his personal experiences in childhood, in college, and during war times.