"This is a lively and piercing analysis, one that casts the era of the founding presidencies in a new light and gives a broader context to the debates that have shaped American politics in the twenty-first century."—Political Science Quarterly
"The Man of the People is erudite, comprehensive, and a must-read for students of the American presidency."—Congress & The Presidency
"Green is able to rethink the accepted political narrative of the early republic in a new and insightful way."—Journal of Southern History
"This is a new and compelling historical interpretation of the presidency. Instead of focusing on personality, institutions, or circumstances, Green has elucidated how the presidency is made and remade in the public debates among critics, and critics of critics."—Reviews in American History
"Green provides a much-needed update to our thinking of the overall cultural image of the presidency."—Presidential Studies Quarterly
“In detailing conflicts within early presidential administrations in considerable detail, Green draws from a wide variety of sources, by both those who considered support of the president a patriotic necessity and a prerequisite for national unity, and those who viewed dissent from weak or unwise executive policies to be equally consistent with the US’s revolutionary tradition.”—Choice
“This book makes a compelling argument that the emergence of the presidency was a collaborative venture, a ‘duet’ between presidents and the people themselves who insisted on playing their role in the development of the office. At the center of those exchanges were episodes of dissent embodied in popular protest movements in which a spectrum of citizens helped create an interactive understanding of the presidency. Richly detailed and effectively argued, this book establishes the ongoing role of dissent in the rise of the institution and represents an important intervention in the literature.”—Todd Estes, professor of history, Oakland University
“Green tells an exciting story about the complicated, intertwined relationship between the American public and the presidency as well as the centuries-long battle to determine what ‘We the People’ actually means, who belongs, and the president’s relationship to that vision. The Man of the People demonstrates how this struggle began during the Revolution, endured as a central part of the American experience, and continues to define politics in the twenty-first century.”—Lindsay M. Chervinsky, author of The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution
“Nathaniel Green’s book is a learned and insightful history of how the austere executive described in the Constitution became ‘the man of the people’ in the first years of the nation’s existence. First envisioned as the embodiment of American national character and the place where American aspirations could be unified, the presidency quickly became the central focus of the country’s partisan and regional divisions, the ultimate prize in heavily divided political contests&8212;and, consequently, the magnet for popular dissent. Green turns our attention away from exclusive focus on the intentions, policy positions, and achievements of the men who occupied the office and instead offers readers a richer and fuller understanding of how the presidency has always been a dynamic and mutually reciprocal collaboration between president and people.”—Brian D. Steele,author of Thomas Jefferson and American Nationhood
“In this thoughtful and deeply researched book, Nathaniel Green writes a history of the early American presidency that does not focus on the actions and words of the presidents themselves. Instead, Green beautifully shows that it was the observations and, more typically, the arguments among Americans of all regions, parties, and backgrounds about what those presidents did and did not do that shaped the office. Among other discoveries, Green brilliantly shows that the very ability to criticize a sitting president became a key part of what it meant to be an American in the early republic, for it underscored the degree to which they, the people, were truly sovereign. Drawing from both the printed materials that abounded in the new republic—newspapers, pamphlets, broadsides—as well as private letters, diaries, and other personal observations, Green is able to plumb the ways that Americans thought, talked, and wrote about the highest office in the land. This will be an essential book for all those seeking to understand the American presidency and the American character.”—Kevin Butterfield, executive director, Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington
