Rylie Oswald
We are in the sixth week of the University Press of Kansas’s election blog series. This week’s list features leadership in politics. We also spotlight certain figures, such as Newt Gingrich, Barack Obama, and Nancy Pelosi.
Find these titles and more in our Election Season Book Sale. Get 50% off select political titles from September 9th to November 9th, 2024.
Arc of Power by John A. Lawrence
Now available in paperback!
Drawing from his thousands of pages of notes written while serving as chief of staff to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, John Lawrence has written a narrative documenting his insider perspective from 2005 to 2010. These momentous years included furious political and legislative battles over the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It also included the productive first two years of Barack Obama’s presidency.
Lawrence’s unique observations provide an unparalleled look at the interpersonal relationships of major political leaders and institutions. Lawrence also gives readers a first-hand perspective of this significant period in political history. Utilizing more than 9,000 pages of transcribed notes from hundreds of conversations between top congressional and administration officials, readers can enter the room and experience the discussions of the key participants in real time.
The 1976 House Majority Leadership Contest by Bruce I. Oppenheimer and Robert L. Peabody
Bruce I. Oppenheimer and the late Robert L. Peabody analyze the 1976 House majority leader race. The authors present the result of their unrivaled insider access to this turning point in congressional history. This fierce contest among the Democratic leadership marked the transition of the House of Representatives into the party-dominated institution that is so familiar today.
The 1976 election led to two important changes in House Democratic leadership. After Carl Albert’s retirement, Majority Leader Thomas “Tip” O’Neill, Jr., of Massachusetts advanced unopposed to the Speakership. This led to a contest between four formidable candidates for the position of majority leader: Rules Committee Spokesman Richard Bolling of Missouri, Caucus Chairman Phillip Burton of California, Majority Whip John McFall of California, and Representative James C. Wright, Jr., of Texas. It was arguably the most competitive contest for a major leadership position in congressional history. Ultimately, it took extensive campaigning and three ballots before Wright emerged victorious.
The Obama Legacy by Bert A. Rockman and Andrew Rudalevige
“Hope” and “change” were the keywords of President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign. In his farewell address on January 10, 2017, he cited the evidence that he’d delivered—from reversing the Great Recession, rebooting the auto industry, and unleashing the longest stretch of job creation in the nation’s history to winning marriage equality and securing the right to health insurance for another 20 million citizens. At the same time, and with a view to the country’s divisive polarization, he made a plea for “the decency of our people” and “the sense of common purpose that we so badly need right now.”
In hindsight, it is increasingly possible to understand whether and how Obama’s legacy matched his rhetoric. It is also possible to evaluate from various angles what his presidency accomplished and what this has meant for US politics, public policy, and civic life going forward. In The Obama Legacy some of the leading observers and scholars of US politics take up this challenge. These writers examine Obama’s choices, operating style, and opportunities taken and missed. They also analyze the institutional and political constraints on the president’s policy agenda. What were Obama’s personal characteristics as a leader? The policy aspirations, output, and strategy of his presidency? What was his role as a political and public leader to the various constituencies needed to generate presidential power? And how did his presidency interact with other political forces?
Presidents on Political Ground by Bruce Miroff
How much power does a president really have? Theories and arguments abound—pointlessly, Bruce Miroff says, if we don’t understand the context in which presidents operate. Borrowing from Machiavelli, Miroff maps five fields of political struggle that presidents must traverse to make any headway. These include media, powerful economic interests, political coalitions, the high-risk politics of domestic policy, and the partisan politics of foreign policy.
The prince readying for war, Machiavelli writes, must “learn the nature of the terrain, and know how mountains slope.” So it is with presidents navigating the political landscape. The variability of political ground, and of the conflicts fought on it, is a core proposition of this study. The swift collapse of the Soviet Union, the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and the financial crisis of 2008—recent history offers a quick lesson in fortune’s role in the careers of presidents. Taking a historical perspective, Miroff explores the various ways in which a president’s agenda is constrained or facilitated by political conditions on the ground.
Leadership in American Politics by Jeffrey A. Jenkins and Craig Volden
In the polarized politics today, the problem of leadership becomes ever more pressing and ever more vexed. What defines leadership, what determines its importance and effectiveness, and how does it differ from one sphere of influence to another: these are the questions Leadership in American Politics addresses in an effort to clarify the causes and consequences of the actions that public leaders take.
The authors—prominent scholars from the major subfields of American politics—discuss the form and content of leadership in their areas of expertise across the spectrum of American government: the executive, legislative, and judicial branches; political parties; interest groups; bureaucracies; the states; and foreign policymaking. Combining historical, theoretical, and empirical approaches, their essays evaluate the constraints, opportunities, and influence of leadership in each area, as well as the challenges of bridging different realms. At a time when understanding the nature and limits of leadership is more important than ever, this volume lays the groundwork for the systematic study of leadership within and across American political institutions.
The Modern American Presidency by Lewis L. Gould
When the first edition of this book appeared in 2003, it was chosen as a Main Selection of both the Book-of-the-Month Club and History Book Club and quickly became the standard work on the modern American presidency—from William McKinley through William Jefferson Clinton. In that original edition, Lewis L. Gould argued that, while the president may be the most powerful man in the world, most presidents have fallen well short of the daunting challenges that confronted them while in office.
During George W. Bush’s two administrations, as Gould discusses in a substantial new chapter, those challenges grew in scope and ferocity, encompassing two intractable wars, natural disaster on an inconceivable scale, and a near-meltdown of the national and global economies. Unfortunately, Gould argues, President Bush was woefully unprepared for those challenges, failed spectacularly as a leader, and ultimately lost the public’s trust. His failures further reinforce and underscore Gould’s previous conclusions.
Newt Gingrich by Matthew N. Green and Jeffrey Crouch
Newt Gingrich is one of the most polarizing and consequential figures in US politics. First elected to the House of Representatives in 1978, he rose from a minority party backbencher to become the first Republican Speaker of the House in forty years. Though much has been written about Gingrich, accounts of his time in Congress are incomplete and often skewed.
In their book Newt Gingrich: The Rise and Fall of a Party Entrepreneur, political scientists Matthew N. Green and Jeffrey Crouch draw from newly uncovered archival material, original interviews, and other data to provide a fresh and insightful look at Gingrich’s entire congressional career. Green and Crouch argue that Gingrich is best understood as a “party entrepreneur,” someone who works primarily to achieve their congressional party’s collective goals. From the moment he entered Congress, Gingrich was laser-focused on achieving two party-related objectives—a Republican majority in the House and a more conservative society—as well as greater influence for himself.
