Command of Office: How War, Secrecy, And Deception Transformed the Presidency, from Theodore Roosevelt to George W. Bush (edit title)

Shelfari edited the description of Command of Office: How War, Secrecy, And Deception Transformed the Presidency, from Theodore Roosevelt to George W. Bush Saturday, August 1 2009.

• "This impressive, massive book on American presidential power is the work of a distinguished scholar of the presidency.... <It> will fascinate the general reader as well as the specialist." -- The Times (London) Command of Office reveals the remarkable--and dangerous--concentration of power in the American presidency over the course of the twentieth century, told through incisive analyses of the eighteen men who have held the office and the events that shaped their presidencies. Stephen Graubard tracks the steady expansion of secrecy as a tool of presidential authority, one that inevitably diminished the power of the other two branches of government. Widely esteemed by his fellow historians and with unique access to former members of both Republican and Democratic administrations, Graubard has written a masterful history of presidential power-essential reading for anyone concerned with American politics. "Graubard's lapidary prose is lucid and provocative, likely to induce a glow of pleasure in the reader. His book is a scintillating and witheringly ironic commentary on an institution that, while growing more monarchical, isolated and secretive, has become steadily debased." ( Sunday Times )

Shelfari edited the contributors of Command of Office: How War, Secrecy, And Deception Transformed the Presidency, from Theodore Roosevelt to George W. Bush Monday, July 27 2009.

• Added a contributor: Stephen Richards Graubard: (Primary Author)

Shelfari edited the first sentence of Command of Office: How War, Secrecy, And Deception Transformed the Presidency, from Theodore Roosevelt to George W. Bush Thursday, July 16 2009.

• THOSE WHO FRAMED the U.S. Constitution were determined that the new republic should be deterred from pursuing the political policies and practices of the old country, abandoning royal power and the exaggerated deference it inspired, shunning war in all but very exceptional circumstances.