Government's Greatest Achievements

Government's Greatest Achievements PDF Author: Paul C. Light
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815716370
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
In an era of promises to create smaller, more limited government, Americans often forget that the federal government has amassed an extraordinary record of successes over the past half century. Despite seemingly insurmountable odds, it helped rebuild Europe after World War II, conquered polio and other life-threatening diseases, faced down communism, attacked racial discrimination, reduced poverty among the elderly, and put men on the moon. In Government's Greatest Achievements, Paul C. Light explores the federal government's most successful accomplishments over the previous five decades and anticipates the most significant challenges of the next half century. While some successes have come through major legislation such as the 1965 Medicare Act, or large-scale efforts like the Apollo space program, most have been achieved through collections of smaller, often unheralded statutes. Drawing on survey responses from 230 historians and 220 political scientists at colleges and universities nationwide, Light ranks and summarizes the fifty greatest government achievements from 1944 to 1999. The achievements were ranked based on difficulty, importance, and degree of success. Through a series of twenty vignettes, he paints a vivid picture of the most intense government efforts to improve the quality of life both at home and abroad—from enhancing health care and workplace safety, to expanding home ownership, to improving education, to protecting endangered species, to strengthening the national defense. The book also examines how Americans perceive government's greatest achievements, and reveals what they consider to be its most significant failures. America is now calling on the government to resolve another complex, difficult problem: the defeat of terrorism. Light concludes by discussing this enormous task, as well as government's other greatest priorities for the next fifty years.

Government's Greatest Achievements

Government's Greatest Achievements PDF Author: Paul C. Light
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815716370
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 252

Get Book Here

Book Description
In an era of promises to create smaller, more limited government, Americans often forget that the federal government has amassed an extraordinary record of successes over the past half century. Despite seemingly insurmountable odds, it helped rebuild Europe after World War II, conquered polio and other life-threatening diseases, faced down communism, attacked racial discrimination, reduced poverty among the elderly, and put men on the moon. In Government's Greatest Achievements, Paul C. Light explores the federal government's most successful accomplishments over the previous five decades and anticipates the most significant challenges of the next half century. While some successes have come through major legislation such as the 1965 Medicare Act, or large-scale efforts like the Apollo space program, most have been achieved through collections of smaller, often unheralded statutes. Drawing on survey responses from 230 historians and 220 political scientists at colleges and universities nationwide, Light ranks and summarizes the fifty greatest government achievements from 1944 to 1999. The achievements were ranked based on difficulty, importance, and degree of success. Through a series of twenty vignettes, he paints a vivid picture of the most intense government efforts to improve the quality of life both at home and abroad—from enhancing health care and workplace safety, to expanding home ownership, to improving education, to protecting endangered species, to strengthening the national defense. The book also examines how Americans perceive government's greatest achievements, and reveals what they consider to be its most significant failures. America is now calling on the government to resolve another complex, difficult problem: the defeat of terrorism. Light concludes by discussing this enormous task, as well as government's other greatest priorities for the next fifty years.

Main Achievements of American Presidents

Main Achievements of American Presidents PDF Author: Heinz-Dietrich Fischer
Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster
ISBN: 3643903626
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
After George Washington was inaugurated in 1789 in New York, he visited Columbia University - the college where, close to 130 years later, the Pulitzer Prizes were established. In this book, one of Washington's biographers, Douglas S. Freeman, who earned the Pulitzer Prize, describes this remarkable event. The book also contains Pulitzer Prize-winning excerpts regarding 14 other US presidents who initiated special projects or had to manage difficult situations during their time in office. Selections from other Pulitzer Prize-winning books show how Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery, how Woodrow Wilson developed his concept of the League of Nations, how Franklin D. Roosevelt had to face the tragedy of Pearl Harbor, and how John F. Kennedy handled the Berlin crisis. (Series: Pulitzer Prize Panorama - Vol. 7)

The Founding Fathers

The Founding Fathers PDF Author: Richard B. Bernstein
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0190273518
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description
This concise and elegant contribution to the Very Short Introduction series reintroduces the history that shaped the founding fathers, the history that they made, and what history has made of them. The book provides a context within which to explore the world of Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, and Hamilton, as well as their complex and still-controversial achievements and legacies.

Correspondence of Andrew Jackson: to April 30, 1814

Correspondence of Andrew Jackson: to April 30, 1814 PDF Author: Andrew Jackson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Presidents
Languages : en
Pages : 572

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Book Description


The National Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings

The National Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Historic buildings
Languages : en
Pages : 454

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Book Description


The Outlier

The Outlier PDF Author: Kai Bird
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0451495233
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 801

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Book Description
“Important . . . [a] landmark presidential biography . . . Bird is able to build a persuasive case that the Carter presidency deserves this new look.”—The New York Times Book Review An essential re-evaluation of the complex triumphs and tragedies of Jimmy Carter’s presidential legacy—from the expert biographer and Pulitzer Prize–winning co-author of American Prometheus Four decades after Ronald Reagan’s landslide win in 1980, Jimmy Carter’s one-term presidency is often labeled a failure; indeed, many Americans view Carter as the only ex-president to have used the White House as a stepping-stone to greater achievements. But in retrospect the Carter political odyssey is a rich and human story, marked by both formidable accomplishments and painful political adversity. In this deeply researched, brilliantly written account, Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer Kai Bird deftly unfolds the Carter saga as a tragic tipping point in American history. As president, Carter was not merely an outsider; he was an outlier. He was the only president in a century to grow up in the heart of the Deep South, and his born-again Christianity made him the most openly religious president in memory. This outlier brought to the White House a rare mix of humility, candor, and unnerving self-confidence that neither Washington nor America was ready to embrace. Decades before today’s public reckoning with the vast gulf between America’s ethos and its actions, Carter looked out on a nation torn by race and demoralized by Watergate and Vietnam and prescribed a radical self-examination from which voters recoiled. The cost of his unshakable belief in doing the right thing would be losing his re-election bid—and witnessing the ascendance of Reagan. In these remarkable pages, Bird traces the arc of Carter’s administration, from his aggressive domestic agenda to his controversial foreign policy record, taking readers inside the Oval Office and through Carter’s battles with both a political establishment and a Washington press corps that proved as adversarial as any foreign power. Bird shows how issues still hotly debated today—from national health care to growing inequality and racism to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—burned at the heart of Carter’s America, and consumed a president who found a moral duty in solving them. Drawing on interviews with Carter and members of his administration and recently declassified documents, Bird delivers a profound, clear-eyed evaluation of a leader whose legacy has been deeply misunderstood. The Outlier is the definitive account of an enigmatic presidency—both as it really happened and as it is remembered in the American consciousness.

The Lives, Times and Significant Achievements of US Presidents Reagan, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Hoover | US History for Kids Junior Scholars Edition | Children's American History

The Lives, Times and Significant Achievements of US Presidents Reagan, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Hoover | US History for Kids Junior Scholars Edition | Children's American History PDF Author: Baby Professor
Publisher: Speedy Publishing LLC
ISBN: 1541965809
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 239

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Book Description
Read about the significant achievements of US Presidents Reagan, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Hoover. Not only that, learn from their humble beginnings and how they persevered to become the presidents America loved. It is important to study biographies to better understand how the decisions of one man can influence a nation. Go ahead and grab a copy today.

The Rhetorical Presidency

The Rhetorical Presidency PDF Author: Jeffrey K. Tulis
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400888360
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
Modern presidents regularly appeal over the heads of Congress to the people at large to generate support for public policies. The Rhetorical Presidency makes the case that this development, born at the outset of the twentieth century, is the product of conscious political choices that fundamentally transformed the presidency and the meaning of American governance. Now with a new foreword by Russell Muirhead and a new afterword by the author, this landmark work probes political pathologies and analyzes the dilemmas of presidential statecraft. Extending a tradition of American political writing that begins with The Federalist and continues with Woodrow Wilson’s Congressional Government, The Rhetorical Presidency remains a pivotal work in its field.

Inside Congress

Inside Congress PDF Author: Trevor Corning
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815727348
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 76

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Book Description
Required reading for anyone who wants to understand how to work within Congress. The House and Senate have unique rules and procedures to determine how legislation moves from a policy idea to law. Evolved over the last 200 years, the rules of both chambers are designed to act as the engine for that process. Each legislative body has its own leadership positions to oversee this legislative process. To the novice, whether a newly elected representative, a lawmaker's staff on her first day at work, or a constituent visiting Washington, the entire process can seem incomprehensible. What is an open rule for a House Appropriations bill and how does it affect consideration? Why are unanimous consent agreements needed in the Senate? The authors of Inside Congress, all congressional veterans, have written the definitive guide to how Congress really works. It is the accessible and necessary resource to understanding and interpreting procedural tools, arcane precedents, and the role of party politics in the making of legislation in Congress.

Washington's Farewell Address

Washington's Farewell Address PDF Author: George Washington
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 72

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Book Description