The American President: From Teddy Roosevelt to Bill Clinton, by William E. Leuchtenburg

Abstract

Reviewed by: Stephen J. Randall, University of CalgaryThe American President is a striking example of the best of traditional political history, written by one of its leading practitioners. Leuchtenburg in his 95th year has provided readers of American history with a brilliantly argued, thoroughly researched, and elegantly written overview and penetrating analysis of the ways in which the American presidency has evolved since the end of the nineteenth century, and the contributions (or lack of same) which from Theodore Roosevelt to William Jefferson Clinton have made to the office. Other scholars have provided outstanding studies of individual presidents, but there is no equal to the detailed synthesis which Leuchtenburg has written of the 17 men who occupied the office between 1901 and the end of the Clinton presidency. It is particularly auspicious that the volume ends with Bill Clinton, since at the time of writing this review Hillary Rodham Clinton has just failed to be elected as the first woman to hold the presidential office.Leuchtenburg makes a compelling case that an analysis of is an effective way to understand American history. In his words: twentieth-century America was significantly shaped by its presidents (xiv). Many social and economic historians might dissent from the argument that themselves are such significant factors in shaping history, but such differences among historians do not detract from the excellence of the arguments presented in this volume.Leuchtenburg's treatment of the is balanced, judicious, and critical where criticism is warranted. His main focus is on the two Roosevelts, Harry Truman, Nixon, Reagan, and Clinton. Franklin Roosevelt's remarkable tenure in office warrants 100 pages of analysis, as do Reagan's and Clinton's. Leuchtenburg presents Theodore Roosevelt as the first of the modern presidents, a man who as president had a Hegelian conception of the primacy of the state (37), and used the office as a bully pulpit to advance his goals and vision. He had a patrician's disdain for the nouveaux riches of his generation, but it was his determination to ensure that the executive office had primacy that greatly determined his efforts to curtail the power of business. Roosevelt's vigorous use of presidential power further influenced Woodrow Wilson's evolving perception of the office. Wilson brought innovation to the office, including addressing joint sessions of Congress and, initially at least, holding press conferences. Although he preferred domestic to foreign affairs, he demonstrated a willingness to use American military power, and like Roosevelt before him, projected American power and prestige abroad. He anticipated the later interpretation of the Supreme Court in US v. Curtiss Wright: that in the area of foreign policy the power of the president was virtually unlimited. It has been in foreign policy and national security that presidential power came to be exercised most dramatically in the course of the century.Leuchtenburg passes lightly over the Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover years, portraying their approach to the presidency and its powers as a regression to a pre-Theodore Roosevelt generation. The stock market crash and the deepening depression which brought Franklin Roosevelt to office in 1933, however, marked a dramatic advancement in the way in which the president used his office, from mobilizing public opinion through fireside chats, flooding Congress with legislative initiatives in the first hundred days, or--less nobly--trying unsuccessfully to pack the Supreme Court in order to advance his legislative agenda. …