Search results for "Eugene D. Genovese"
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Fatal Self-Deception
Slaveholders were preoccupied with presenting slavery as a benign, paternalistic institution in which the planter took care of his family and slaves were content with their fate. In this book, Eugene D. Genovese and Elizabeth Fox-Genovese discuss how slaveholders perpetuated and rationalized this romanticized version of life on the plantation. Slaveholders' paternalism had little to do with ostensible benevolence, kindness and good cheer. It grew out of the necessity to discipline and morally justify a system of exploitation. At the same time, this book also advocates the examination of masters' relations with white plantation laborers and servants - a largely unstudied subject. Southerners drew on the work of British and European socialists to conclude that all labor, white and black, suffered de facto slavery, and they championed the South's 'Christian slavery' as the most humane and compassionate of social systems, ancient and modern.
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Fatal Self-Deception
Slaveholders were preoccupied with presenting slavery as a benign, paternalistic institution in which the planter took care of his family and slaves were content with their fate. In this book, Eugene D. Genovese and Elizabeth Fox-Genovese discuss how slaveholders perpetuated and rationalized this romanticized version of life on the plantation. Slaveholders' paternalism had little to do with ostensible benevolence, kindness and good cheer. It grew out of the necessity to discipline and morally justify a system of exploitation. At the same time, this book also advocates the examination of masters' relations with white plantation laborers and servants - a largely unstudied subject. Southerners drew on the work of British and European socialists to conclude that all labor, white and black, suffered de facto slavery, and they championed the South's 'Christian slavery' as the most humane and compassionate of social systems, ancient and modern.
R 1,396.82
From Rebellion to Revolution
In one of his most important books, the renowned historian Eugene D. Genovese examines slave revolts in the United States, the Caribbean, and Brazil, placing them in the context of modern world history. By studying the conditions that favoured these revolts and the history of slave guerrilla warfare throughout the Western Hemisphere, he connects the ideology of the revolts to the ideology of the great revolutionary movements of the late eighteenth century.Genovese finds that the slave rebellion in Saint-Domingue, led by Toussaint L'Ouverture, constituted a turning point in the history of the slave revolts and, indeed, in the history of the human spirit. By claiming for his enslaved brothers and sisters the same right to human dignity that the French bourgeoisie claimed for itself during the French Revolution, Toussaint began the process by which slave uprisings changed from secessionist rebellions to revolutionary demands for liberty, equality, and justice.
R 903.00
Consuming Fire
This book presents insight into religion and slavery from a leading southern scholar. ""A Consuming Fire"" focuses on the religious dimensions of the South's response to slavery, the Civil War, and emancipation. Eugene D. Genovese looks at how southern proslavery theorists, both clergy and lay, struggled with the intellectual and theological quandaries posed by slavery. To many, defeat in the Civil War was God's punishment not for slavery itself but for the failure to reform it into a 'scripturally sanctioned' system. Although the reform spirit carried over into the postwar years, it was eventually overwhelmed by open racism and segregationist ideology.
R 973.00
Southern Tradition
In recent years American conservatism has found a new voice, a new way of picking up the political pieces left in the wake of liberal policies. But what seems innovative, Eugene Genovese shows us, may in fact have very old roots. Tracing a certain strain of conservatism to its sources in a rich southern tradition, his book introduces a revealing perspective on the politics of our day. As much a work of political and moral philosophy as one of history, The Southern Tradition is based on the intellectual journey of one of the most influential historians of the late twentieth century.To appreciate the tradition of southern conservatism, Genovese tells us, we must first understand the relation of southern thought to politics. Toward this end, he presents a historical overview that identifies the tenets, sensibilities, and attitudes of the southern-conservative world view. With these conditions in mind, he considers such political and constitutional issues as state rights, concurrent majority, and the nature and locus of political power in a constitutional republic. Of special interest are the southern-conservative critiques of equality and democracy, and of the Leviathan state in its liberal, socialist, and fascist forms. Genovese examines these critiques in light of the specific concept of property that has been central to southern social and political thought.Not only does this book illuminate a political tradition grounded in the writings of John Randolph and John C. Calhoun, but it shows how this lineage has been augmented by powerful literary figures such as Allen Tate, Lewis Simpson, and Robert Penn Warren. Genovese here reconstitutes the historical canon, re-envisions the strengths and weaknesses of the conservative tradition, and broadens the spectrum of political debate for our time.
R 1,187.00
Sweetness of Life
This book examines the home and leisure life of planters in the antebellum American South. Based on a lifetime of research by the late Eugene Genovese (1930–2012), with an introduction and epilogue by Douglas Ambrose, The Sweetness of Life presents a penetrating study of slaveholders and their families in both intimate and domestic settings: at home; attending the theatre; going on vacations to spas and springs; throwing parties; hunting; gambling; drinking and entertaining guests, completing a comprehensive portrait of the slaveholders and the world that they built with slaves. Genovese subtly but powerfully demonstrates how much politics, economics, and religion shaped, informed, and made possible these leisure activities. A fascinating investigation of a little-studied aspect of planter life, The Sweetness of Life broadens our understanding of the world that the slaveholders and their slaves made; a tragic world of both 'sweetness' and slavery.
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World the Slaveholders Made
A seminal and original work that delves deeply into what slaveholders thought.
R 1,028.78
Sweetness of Life
This book examines the home and leisure life of planters in the antebellum American South. Based on a lifetime of research by the late Eugene Genovese (1930–2012), with an introduction and epilogue by Douglas Ambrose, The Sweetness of Life presents a penetrating study of slaveholders and their families in both intimate and domestic settings: at home; attending the theatre; going on vacations to spas and springs; throwing parties; hunting; gambling; drinking and entertaining guests, completing a comprehensive portrait of the slaveholders and the world that they built with slaves. Genovese subtly but powerfully demonstrates how much politics, economics, and religion shaped, informed, and made possible these leisure activities. A fascinating investigation of a little-studied aspect of planter life, The Sweetness of Life broadens our understanding of the world that the slaveholders and their slaves made; a tragic world of both 'sweetness' and slavery.
R 3,762.45
Mind of the Master Class
The Mind of the Master Class tells of America's greatest historical tragedy. It presents the slaveholders as men and women, a great many of whom were intelligent, honorable, and pious. It asks how people who were admirable in so many ways could have presided over a social system that proved itself an enormity and inflicted horrors on their slaves. The South had formidable proslavery intellectuals who participated fully in transatlantic debates and boldly challenged an ascendant capitalist ('free-labor') society. Blending classical and Christian traditions, they forged a moral and political philosophy designed to sustain conservative principles in history, political economy, social theory, and theology, while translating them into political action. Even those who judge their way of life most harshly have much to learn from their probing moral and political reflections on their times - and ours - beginning with the virtues and failings of their own society and culture.
R 4,136.34
Mind of the Master Class
The Mind of the Master Class tells of America's greatest historical tragedy. It presents the slaveholders as men and women, a great many of whom were intelligent, honorable, and pious. It asks how people who were admirable in so many ways could have presided over a social system that proved itself an enormity and inflicted horrors on their slaves. The South had formidable proslavery intellectuals who participated fully in transatlantic debates and boldly challenged an ascendant capitalist ('free-labor') society. Blending classical and Christian traditions, they forged a moral and political philosophy designed to sustain conservative principles in history, political economy, social theory, and theology, while translating them into political action. Even those who judge their way of life most harshly have much to learn from their probing moral and political reflections on their times - and ours - beginning with the virtues and failings of their own society and culture.
R 2,066.76
Slavery in White and Black
Southern slaveholders proudly pronounced themselves orthodox Christians, who accepted responsibility for the welfare of the people who worked for them. They proclaimed that their slaves enjoyed a better and more secure life than any laboring class in the world. Now, did it not follow that the lives of laborers of all races across the world would be immeasurably improved by their enslavement? In the Old South but in no other slave society a doctrine emerged among leading clergymen, politicians, and intellectuals - 'Slavery in the Abstract', which declared enslavement the best possible condition for all labor regardless of race. They joined the Socialists, whom they studied, in believing that the free-labor system, wracked by worsening class warfare, was collapsing. A vital question: to what extent did the people of the several social classes of the South accept so extreme a doctrine? That question lies at the heart of this book.
R 1,481.44
Slavery in White and Black
Southern slaveholders proudly pronounced themselves orthodox Christians, who accepted responsibility for the welfare of the people who worked for them. They proclaimed that their slaves enjoyed a better and more secure life than any laboring class in the world. Now, did it not follow that the lives of laborers of all races across the world would be immeasurably improved by their enslavement? In the Old South but in no other slave society a doctrine emerged among leading clergymen, politicians, and intellectuals - 'Slavery in the Abstract', which declared enslavement the best possible condition for all labor regardless of race. They joined the Socialists, whom they studied, in believing that the free-labor system, wracked by worsening class warfare, was collapsing. A vital question: to what extent did the people of the several social classes of the South accept so extreme a doctrine? That question lies at the heart of this book.
R 3,371.45
Analysis of Eugene Genovese's Roll, Jordan, Roll
Most studies of slavery are underpinned by ideology and idealism. Eugene Genovese's ground-breaking book takes a stand against both these influences, arguing not only that all ideological history is bad history – a remarkable statement, coming from a self-professed Marxist – but also that slavery itself can only be understood if master and slave are studied together, rather than separately. Genovese's most important insight, which makes this book a fine example of the critical thinking skill of problem-solving, is that the best way to view the institution of American slavery is to understand why exactly it was structured as it was. He saw slavery as a process of continual renegotiation of power balances, as masters strove to extract the maximum work from their slaves, while slaves aimed to obtain acknowledgement of their humanity and the ability to shape elements of the world that they were forced to live in. Genovese's thesis is not wholly original; he adapts Gramsci's notion of hegemony to re-interpret the master-slave relationship – but it is an important example of the benefits of asking productive new questions about topics that seem, superficially at least, to be entirely obvious. By focusing on slave culture, rather than producing another study of economic determinism, this massive study succeeds in reconceptualising an institution in an exciting new way.
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Elizabeth Fox-Genovese
A celebrated historian and women's studies scholar, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese roiled both disciplines with her transition from Marxist-inclined feminist to conservative public intellectual. In the first major biography of this singular and controversial scholar, Deborah Symonds explores Fox-Genovese's enormous personal archive and traces Fox-Genovese's life from a brilliant girl in the World War II era struggling with demanding parents and anorexia to a woman intellectual in the later twentieth century and into the new millennium, providing an illuminating and moving psychological portrait. Never settled, Fox-Genovese was, by turns, a French historian, Marxist feminist, literary critic, southern historian, Red Tory, public intellectual, and conservative Catholic but still, in her eyes, a feminist. This biography sheds new light on its subject's dynamic and intellectually productive marriage to leftist historian Eugene D. Genovese. In her provocative politics, which confront us still with the complexities of left and right, and her constant search for her place in the world, Fox-Genovese's story resonates more strongly than ever.
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Capitalism, Slavery, and Republican Values
In the troubled days before the American Civil War, both Northern protectionists and Southern free trade economists saw political economy as the key to understanding the natural laws on which every republican political order should be based. They believed that individual freedom was one such law of nature and that this freedom required a market economy in which citizens could freely pursue their particular economic interests and goals. But Northern and Southern thinkers alike feared that the pursuit of wealth in a market economy might lead to the replacement of the independent producer by the wage laborer. A worker without property is a potential rebel, and so the freedom and commerce that give birth to such a worker would seem to be incompatible with preserving the content citizenry necessary for a stable, republican political order. Around the resolution of this dilemma revolved the great debate on the desirability of slavery in this country. Northern protectionists argued that independent labor must be protected at the same time that capitalist development is encouraged. Southern free trade economists answered that the formation of a propertyless class is inevitable; to keep the nation from anarchy and rebellion, slavery—justified by racism—must be preserved at any cost. Battles of the economists such as these left little room for political compromise between North and South as the antebellum United States confronted the corrosive effects of capitalist development. And slavery's retardant effect on the Southern economy ultimately created a rift within the South between those who sought to make slavery more like capitalism and those who sought to make capitalism more like slavery.
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Fate's Take-Out Slide
Few would dispute the pitching greatness of Sandy Koufax—but was Paul Pettit better? Jim Baxes was once compared to the great Pie Traynor yet few baseball fans have ever heard of him. John Elway was undeniably one of the greatest quarterbacks in pro football history but could he have been an even better baseball player?For most fans greatness is measured in trophies and awards and confirmed by consistency over time. During his 70 years in baseball, renowned scout George Genovese witnessed some of the most talented players ever to play the game—some of them unknown to fans. He recalls the careers of unsung greats like Nestor Chavez, Matt Harrington and Derek Tatsuno, who never gained immortality despite unrivaled talent.
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Power of the American Presidency
In its more than 200-year history, the office of the President of the United States has undergone a variety of dramatic changes. Because the founding fathers left the privileges and responsibilities of the job constitutionally vague and ill-defined, each occupant of the office - from George Washington to Bill Clinton - has tried to set the limits of presidential power as he has seen fit based on the domestic and international circumstances of the day as well as on his own ambition and abilities. In The Power of the American Presidency, Michael A. Genovese, one of the best known and respected scholars on the presidency, takes students on a journey through the personalities and politics of some of the most fascinating and at times powerful men in American history. Organized chronologically, the text offers an overview of the evolution and elasticity of presidential power by providing case studies of each president's personal characteristics and the defining historical events of each administration.From Abraham Lincoln, who stretched the boundaries of presidential power during the Civil War, to nearly forgotten presidents like Van Buren, Garfield, and Fillmore, who led weak administrations with limited power, Genovese presents the history of the country's highest office with insight, balanced judgment, and humour. The Power of the American Presidency will be widely used in undergraduate courses on the American Presidency as well as in courses on American history, American studies, and political science. It will also be of interest to anyone who wishes to gain a keener insight into the workings of the presidency.
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Watergate Crisis
This reference provides background information about the Watergate crisis and discusses its significance to U.S. politics today.Relatively insignificant at first glance, the Watergate crisis led to the downfall of a president and emerged as the most important constitutional crisis since the Civil War. Journalists and the media were instrumental in shedding light on Watergate and exposing political corruption at the highest levels of government. Watergate became part of American popular culture and synonymous with presidential corruption. This book surveys the background of the Watergate crisis and links it to contemporary American politics.The first part of the book provides a narrative overview and examination of the Watergate crisis, with a consideration of what happened and why, and the relevance of Watergate to today's political issues. The book considers such topics as political corruption and impeachment, the role of the media, and the abuse of presidential power. The book also offers biographical sketches of key players in the Watergate crisis, a chronology, glossary, primary source document excerpts, and an annotated bibliography.
R 897.00
Modern Presidency
This book offers an accessible and compelling guide to the American presidency by exploring a series of key questions. How powerful is the American presidency, and to what extent is presidential power dependent on persuasion? Do the personal qualities of presidents drive events, or does the institution of the presidency shape their choices? Is the presidency a “unitary” office or a limited and circumscribed institution? Which is more important, character or competence? Is presidential success a matter of skill or opportunity? And will future presidencies turn away from checks and balances in favor of illiberal democracy?Michael A. Genovese, a leading scholar of the presidency, provides a clear overview of the core arguments and debates over the essential characteristics of this contradictory institution. Ideal for classroom use, this book provides insights into what the presidency was designed to be, what it has evolved into, how it has been reshaped to respond to new demands, and what its future might hold. Engaging and reader-friendly, The Modern Presidency gives students the tools to think critically about the nature of this complex office and how its powers can be wielded.
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Memo to a New President
So you've gotten yourself elected president—now what? Help is here in the form of an imaginary memo from your former professor, who integrates the works of the great thinkers (Aristotle, Plato, Machiavelli, etc.) with contemporary scholarship to address the strengths, limitations, and possibilities of presidential leadership. Michael A. Genovese, a highly esteemed presidential scholar, culls numerous nuggets of wisdom about presidential leadership, including pastpresidents, condensing detailed and academically grounded insights into an engaging and entertaining read. All essential topics are covered, including: presidential character and personality; political institutions and opportunities; power versus leadership; and sources of and limits to presidentialpower. In-depth coverage of crisis management and wartime decision-making are unique strengths of the book. Chapters are brief and concise, making Memo to a New President far more interesting than supplements such as case studies or documents. Genovese's presentation allows readers to identify with the various constraints on America's chief executive and gives them an opportunity to apply their knowledge and preconceptions (often misconceptions) to the political realities that presidents routinely face. Students are left to grapple with a central question of the book: Is an effectivepresidency possible without undermining the essence of a democratic republic?
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Problem of Profit
Attacks against the pursuit of profit in eighteenth-century Britain have been largely read as reactions against market activity in general or as critiques of financial innovation. In The Problem of Profit, however, Michael Genovese contends that such rejections of profit derive not from a distaste for moneymaking itself but from a distaste for individualism.In the aftermath of the late seventeenth-century Financial Revolution, literature linked the concept of sympathy to the public-minded economic ideals of the past to resist the rising individualism of capitalism. This study places literary works at the center of eighteenth-century debates about how to harmonize exchanges of feeling and exchanges of finance, highlighting representations of communitarian, affective profit-making in georgic poetry as well as in the work of Joseph Addison, Daniel Defoe, Richard Steele, Sarah Fielding, Henry Fielding, David Hume, Samuel Johnson, and Laurence Sterne, among others. Investigating commercial treatises, novels, poetry, periodicals, and philosophy, Genovese argues that authors conjured alternatives to private accumulation that might counter the isolating tendencies of impersonal exchange.However, even as emotional language and economic language arose together in the 1700s, the attendant aspiration to form a communitarian economy in Britain was not fulfilled. By recovering an approach to moneymaking that failed to thrive, The Problem of Profit argues for the relevance of an unfamiliar narrative of capitalistic thought to today’s anxiety over the discord between personal ambition and public good.
R 1,652.00
Future of Leadership
The Future of Leadership considers how the rapid changes of today will affect the leaders of tomorrow. Renowned Leadership scholar Michael A. Genovese argues that one of the key challenges for future leaders will be to effectively and constructively manage the ‘hyper-change’ taking place both within organizations and in the broader social and political spheres. Taking a Futures Studies approach to envision the state of leadership in the coming decades, Genovese also provides case studies of leaders who have already demonstrated the mind- and skill-sets necessary to successfully manage rapid change.
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Angel of Ashland
For over fifty years Dr. Robert Spencer (1889-1969) practiced medicine in the small coal-mining town of Ashland, PA. As the only town doctor, he was known by everyone as a dedicated medical professional who spent long hours at his clinic, charged a modest fee for his services, never turned anyone away who couldn't pay, and was the person the townspeople turned to with their many ailments and injuries.But he also gained another kind of notoriety as well, about which there was generally a discreet silence in the town: he would willingly perform safe and reliable abortions. Women "in trouble" could consult him without shame or fear, and he would perform the procedure quickly and efficiently with no questions asked. This was unique in the era before Roe v. Wade, especially in the 1920s when Dr. Spencer opened his practice. As a result he soon became a much-sought-after physician, to whom doctors throughout the country would refer women who wished to end their pregnancies.Of course, many disapproved of his not-so-secret and illegal abortion practice. Despite the townspeople's reliance on him for his medical expertise, over the years he was blackmailed, robbed, often shunned in public, censured by the American Medical Association, and arrested by the police.This is the first biography of Dr. Spencer. Vincent Genovese has done yeoman's work in reconstructing Dr. Spencer's life and career by researching his correspondence, interviewing surviving Ashland residents who knew him, and combing through old newspaper archives. This unique biography is a must read for anyone interested in the issue of abortion.
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Presidential Dilemma
This brief, thought-provoking text evaluates the performance of recent presidents from Johnson to Bush, finding that, overall, each has failed to live up to public expectations. Written by one of the top presidency scholars today, The Presidential Dilemma reflects on the idea that as our country's problems grow, our politicians seem to shrink. Arguing that American presidents of the last 40 years have largely failed to meet the needs, expectations, and responsibilities placed upon them, the book discusses how presidents might better maximize their opportunities for leadership and suggests a distinctive theory of presidential politics: presidents, facing a system of multiple veto points, seek to maximize power and influence.The third edition of Genovese's stimulating book is thoroughly updated to reflect presidential development in recent years, and a new introduction brings his arguments current. As he demonstrates, the emergence of democracy as a new social and political paradigm undermined traditional authority and legitimacy. Subjects no longer automatically follow; now citizens must be persuaded. They may give to a leader their authority and power, or not. As Genovese notes, in a world of mass consumerism, those wishing to lead have precious little to offer by way of inducement.Genovese's goal is to examine the reasons why the performance of recent presidents has been underwhelming, discuss how they might maximize their opportunities for leadership, and ask a key question: Can presidents be both powerful and accountable? The book follows a clear format and tries to show why America's officeholders have so rarely been leaders and how presidents can become leaders instead of mere officeholders.
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Nixon Presidency
Although much material concerning the Nixon presidency remains unavailable to scholars, Michael A. Genovese has successfully pieced together the many puzzles that make up Richard Nixon and his presidency. A study of the Nixon presidency, it is also a study of the nature of the presidency broadly defined that is informed by the concerns of both traditional political biography and of contemporary presidential scholarship. As such, the volume raises many vital issues and questions relating to the office of president. Focusing on Nixon as a political leader and on his style of decision-making and management, The Nixon Presidency is the first book to bring together all the key elements of Nixon's presidency into an integrated and interrelated whole, tracing Nixon's rise and fall and the how and why of Watergate.The first four chapters present a biographical sketch of Nixon's early years and rise in politics; assess Nixon's personality and how he approached and organized his administration; and document his domestic, economic, and foreign policies. Chapter five examines the events that led to Watergate and the collapse of the Nixon presidency. Balanced yet critical, the study concludes with an analysis of the impact and legacy of Richard Nixon on the presidency and the U.S. and an assessment of Nixon within the broader comparative perspective of other United States presidents. A most readable book for the informed generalist and a valuable addition to college-level courses in the Presidency, U.S. Government, and Modern U.S. History.
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Modern Presidency
This book offers an accessible and compelling guide to the American presidency by exploring a series of key questions. How powerful is the American presidency, and to what extent is presidential power dependent on persuasion? Do the personal qualities of presidents drive events, or does the institution of the presidency shape their choices? Is the presidency a “unitary” office or a limited and circumscribed institution? Which is more important, character or competence? Is presidential success a matter of skill or opportunity? And will future presidencies turn away from checks and balances in favor of illiberal democracy?Michael A. Genovese, a leading scholar of the presidency, provides a clear overview of the core arguments and debates over the essential characteristics of this contradictory institution. Ideal for classroom use, this book provides insights into what the presidency was designed to be, what it has evolved into, how it has been reshaped to respond to new demands, and what its future might hold. Engaging and reader-friendly, The Modern Presidency gives students the tools to think critically about the nature of this complex office and how its powers can be wielded.
R 696.00
FoolBud
A timeless tale for adults and children that you can tell the night watching the stars or that you can read under the shade of a tree in a summer afternoon.
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Presidential Dilemma
This brief, thought-provoking text evaluates the performance of recent presidents from Johnson to Bush, finding that, overall, each has failed to live up to public expectations. Written by one of the top presidency scholars today, The Presidential Dilemma reflects on the idea that as our country's problems grow, our politicians seem to shrink. Arguing that American presidents of the last 40 years have largely failed to meet the needs, expectations, and responsibilities placed upon them, the book discusses how presidents might better maximize their opportunities for leadership and suggests a distinctive theory of presidential politics: presidents, facing a system of multiple veto points, seek to maximize power and influence.The third edition of Genovese's stimulating book is thoroughly updated to reflect presidential development in recent years, and a new introduction brings his arguments current. As he demonstrates, the emergence of democracy as a new social and political paradigm undermined traditional authority and legitimacy. Subjects no longer automatically follow; now citizens must be persuaded. They may give to a leader their authority and power, or not. As Genovese notes, in a world of mass consumerism, those wishing to lead have precious little to offer by way of inducement.Genovese's goal is to examine the reasons why the performance of recent presidents has been underwhelming, discuss how they might maximize their opportunities for leadership, and ask a key question: Can presidents be both powerful and accountable? The book follows a clear format and tries to show why America's officeholders have so rarely been leaders and how presidents can become leaders instead of mere officeholders.
R 2,788.78
Presidential Leadership in an Age of Change
The American public hungers for a heroic leader. From John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush, every American president has left office either under a cloud or as a failed leader. Michael A. Genovese argues that presidents are set up for failure; it is not specific presidents but the presidency itself that is the problem.The presidency was designed to prevent tyranny through a system of separation of powers that inhibits presidents from exercising sufficient power to meet the demands and expectations that developed over time. Each new president dreams of success, only to be crushed by the paralytic weight of vetoes and roadblocks. As they fail to meet expectations, Americans turn on them, making their already precarious position much worse. Given the perilous nature of the office, Genovese examines the skills required to achieve success and the roles of power and persuasion. He also examines how globalization and the rapid pace of change contribute to the decline of presidential power.This accessible synthesis of scholarship is geared toward an audience that is hungry to unravel the dilemmas of presidential leadership. Students of the presidency will find it insightful; general readers will find it illuminating.
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Presidential Power and Nuclear Arms
This book traces the development of US strategy on nuclear weapons and how presidents from Truman to Biden have wrestled with the question of how best to employ nuclear arms in a dangerous world. Michael Genovese examines how each president tried to solve the problems raised by the possession and spread of nuclear arms. Some presidents were aware of the grave dangers; others imagined that nuclear weapons could be useful battlefield weapons; still others tried to build up the nuclear arsenal while others sought to cut the arsenals. This book also analyzes the role of nuclear weapons and the rise of presidential power. The nuclear age has contributed to the dominance of the American presidency in foreign policy and war. To policy makers and politicians alike, the nuclear threat meant that command and control had to be placed in the hands of a central commander: the President of the United States. It concludes with an examination of the ethical and pragmatic issues regarding nuclear weapons and their use.
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