The American President

The last thing that the Founding Fathers envisioned was a hereditary chief executive. After all, they had fought a war in part to rid themselves of a king. Yet power inevitably passes from generation to generation, and several families hav…

Nearly one in six American presidents has died in office. The vice presidents who succeeded them were often chosen because they provided some electoral advantage (John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester Arthur, Harry Truman).…

Is an independent cast of mind the best approach to the presidency? The four men profiled in this hour (John Adams, Zachary Taylor, Rutherford B. Hayes and Jimmy Carter) pursued a course that took little account of political affiliation, b…

In our nation’s early years, taking part in political affairs was considered a duty and an honor, but not a way of life. It was not long, however, before the professional politicians, and the parties they represented, began to find their …

It is often observed that American national identity is less a condition than an idea. What we have come to refer to as “the vision thing” is an expectation that our presidents will bring to the office a particularly strong sense of natio…

The president has no greater responsibility than representing the nation on the world stage. These four men (James Monroe; William McKinley; Woodrow Wilson; George H.W. Bush) engaged in this task at critical times in our national history …

From the beginning, the presidential office has beckoned to national heroes renowned for their selfless service to their country (George Washington, William Henry Harrison, Ulysses S. Grant, Dwight Eisenhower). This affinity is especially …

With the rise of political parties came the dawn of political compromise: nominees were selected because they were less offensive to some voters than those who might have been the best candidates (Franklin Pierce, James Garfield, Warren G.…

Though the powers of the presidency have expanded with the growth of the nation, the process has been anything but smooth. These four presidents are benchmarks in the development of executive power (Andrew Jackson, Grover Cleveland, Theodo…

The final episode examines presidential leadership in an era of an increasingly divided government. The American presidency was conceived as one part of a larger system of institutions, and its effectiveness rests in part upon a good measu…