Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. Introduction: Confessions of a Presidential Assassin 1
4. Part I. Balancing Agency and Structure
5. 1. The Unsettled State of Presidential History 9
6. 2. Personal Dynamics and Presidential Transitions: The Case of Roosevelt and Truman 34
7. 3. Narrator-in-Chief: Presidents and the Politics of Economic Crisis from FDR to Obama 51
8. Part II. The Social and Cultural Landscape Presidents Confront
9. 4. The Reagan Devolution: Movement Conservatives and the Right’s Days of Rage, 1988–1994 69
10. 5. There Will Be Oil: Presidents, Wildcat Religion, and the Culture Wars of Pipeline Politics 93
11. 6. Ike’s World: In Search of Ideology in the Eisenhower Presidency 108
12. 7. Black Appointees, Political Legitimacy, and the American Presidency 123
13. 8. Presidents and the Media 143
14. 9. The Making of the Celebrity Presidency 162
15. Part III. The Presidency and Political Structure
16. 10. Stand by Me: Coalitions and Presidential Power from a Cross-National Perspective 175
17. 11. Taking the Long View: Presidents in a System Stacked against Them 194
18. 12. American Presidential Authority and Economic Expertise since World War II 211
19. 13. The Changing Presidential Politics of Disaster: From Coolidge to Nixon 233
20. Conclusion: The Perils and Prospects of Presidential History 250
21. Notes 259
22. List of Contributors 303
23. Index 307