Presidents from Reagan Through Clinton, 1981-2001 PDF Download

Author: Lane Crothers
Publisher: Greenwood
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 328

View

Book Description
Contains primary source material.

Author: Michael Tomasky
Publisher: Times Books
ISBN: 1627796770
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 206

View

Book Description
The president of larger-than-life ambitions and appetites whose term defined America at the close of the twentieth century Bill Clinton: a president of contradictions. He was a Rhodes Scholar and a Yale Law School graduate, but he was also a fatherless child from rural Arkansas. He was one of the most talented politicians of his age, but he inspired enmity of such intensity that his opponents would stop at nothing to destroy him. He was the first Democrat since Franklin Roosevelt to win two successive presidential elections, but he was also the first president since Andrew Johnson to be impeached. In this incisive biography of America’s forty-second president, Michael Tomasky examines Clinton’s eight years in office, a time often described as one of peace and prosperity, but in reality a time of social and political upheaval, as the culture wars grew ever more intense amid the rise of the Internet (and with it, online journalism and blogging); military actions in Somalia, Iraq, Bosnia, and Kosovo; standoffs at Waco and Ruby Ridge; domestic terrorism in Oklahoma City; and the rise of al-Qaeda. It was a time when Republicans took control of Congress and a land deal gone bad turned into a constitutional crisis, as lurid details of a sitting president’s sexual activities became the focus of public debate. Tomasky’s clear-eyed assessment of Clinton’s presidency offers a new perspective on what happened, what it all meant, and what aspects continue to define American politics to this day. In many ways, we are still living in the Age of Clinton.

Author: Jacob Weisberg
Publisher: Times Books
ISBN: 0805097287
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 208

View

Book Description
The conservative icon who reshaped American politics and laid the groundwork for the end of the Cold War In the second half of the twentieth century, no American president defined his political era as did Ronald Reagan. He ushered in an age that extolled smaller government, tax cuts, and strong defense, and to this day politicians of both political parties operate within the parameters of the world he made. His eight years in office from 1981 to 1989 were a time of economic crisis and recovery, a new American assertiveness abroad, and an engagement with the Soviet Union that began in conflict but moved in surprising new directions. Jacob Weisberg provides a bracing portrait of America's fortieth president and the ideas that animated his political career, offering a fresh psychological interpretation and showing that there was more to Reagan than the usual stereotypes. Reagan, he observes, was a staunch conservative but was also unafraid to compromise and cut deals where necessary. And Reagan espoused a firm belief, just as firm as his belief in small government and strong defense, that nuclear weapons were immoral and ought to be eliminated. Weisberg argues that these facets of Reagan were too often ignored in his time but reveal why his presidency turned out to be so consequential. In the years since Reagan left office, he has been cast in marble by the Republican Party and dismissed by the Democrats. Weisberg shows why we need to move past these responses if we wish truly to appreciate his accomplishments and his legacy.

Author: David A. Smith
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313017980
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 156

View

Book Description
It was the Era of Good Feelings, but all was not well with the young Republic. From 1825 to 1849, presidents John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, and James K. Polk grappled with the legacy of the Monroe Doctrine, Indian removal, territorial expansion, the National Bank, tariffs, economic depressions, War with Mexico, near war with Great Britain, and the place of slavery in the growing nation. As one would expect from confident citizens of the burgeoning young country, conflicting arguments swirled around the hot-button issues of the day. This rich resource of primary documents enables students to read these arguments first hand, and feel the passions and study the logic driving their often forceful positions. All of the primary documents are annotated and placed into historical context. A thorough index concludes the work.

Author: Amy H. Sturgis
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313016887
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 254

View

Book Description
This resource of primary documents and commentary spans the Hayes and McKinley administrations, selecting and describing five to ten of the foremost issues of the day. The actual texts of the presidents' positions, along with the opposing viewpoints, are presented. Helpful background information and commentary clarifies the primary sources, accurately depicting this dynamic time in the country's past and providing an invaluable resource to any student of American history. The period from 1877 to 1901 marked the end of one United States-a country still reeling from the Civil War, a divided nation of Reconstruction, a land of economic depression, sectional hostility, and governmental corruption. A new United States was emerging. It was an empire, an international power that both negotiated with and fought against European nations with great success, and a country with a rebounding economy, vigorous industry, and restored faith. During this Gilded Age, the nation expanded as settlers moved west and displaced native populations. Immigrants entered at the highest rate in the country's history. Geographic expansion gave rise to mighty railroads, and industrial expansion brought corporations, company towns, and monopolies. This unprecedented industrialism bolstered urban growth, yet economic hardships afflicted rural countrysides. Labor and agrarian interests organized.

Author: John King
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313083177
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 276

View

Book Description
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s Communism and the Cold War pervaded almost every aspect of American policy and concern. Eisenhower's Highway Act sought to strengthen America with the sort of roads system and military advantage Germany's Autobahn provided in World War II; Kennedy looked to space, the Peace Corps, and the schools to improve America's actual and perceived status in the eyes of the world; LBJ continually found concerns about Southeast Asia pressing in upon him notwithstanding his desire to found a new Great Society in the United States. However, despite the Cold War and demands of international politics, these three presidents were continually involved in critical debates about the domestic future of America, and their roles and victories in these debates have left deep impressions upon American society. This volume provides readers with access to the primary documents—both foreign and domestic—that reflect the debates that have had such a strong influence in shaping the United States. This resource covers thirty-two key issues and initiatives of the Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson presidencies. An introductory overview of each president's administration provides a useful window through which to assess the specific debates and documents addressed, and each of these individual issues is also supplemented by a brief introductory discussion. Among the issues covered are: Eisenhower's attempt to establish a new look for national defense, the Eisenhower doctrine, and the National Defense Education Act; Kennedy's Alliance for Progress and Peace Corps programs, his role in Cuba, his plans for America in space, and his work on arms control and the Limited Test Ban Treaty; and Johnson's Civil Rights Act, Model Cities Program, war on poverty, and role in the ground and air wars in Vietnam. A timeline provides a chronological backdrop for the subject, and recommended readings following each section offer helpful direction for further study.

Author: Mark Updegrove
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1461749778
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 362

View

Book Description
F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote, "There are no second acts in American lives", but more and more, our former presidents are proving him wrong. No longer fading into the background upon leaving the highest office in the land, ex-presidents perform valuable services as elder statesmen and international emissaries - and by pursuing their own agendas. From Eisenhower taking Kennedy to the woodshed (literally) on the Bay of Pigs crisis, to Carter earning the Nobel Peace Prize, to Bush Sr. and Clinton joining forces in an unlikely partnership for tsunami and Hurricane Katrina relief, the author examines the increasingly important roles that former presidents assume in our nation and throughout the world. Through interviews with former presidents, first ladies, family members, friends, and staffers, the author also delves into the very human stories that play out as the modern ex-presidents - from Truman to Clinton - adjust to life after the White House and attempt to shape their historical legacies. In this, the first narrative history of the modern post-presidency, Mark K. Updegrove makes a refreshingly unique contribution to literature on the American presidents.

Author: J. David Woodard Ph.D.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313049653
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 297

View

Book Description
This is a whistle-stop survey of American politics from Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush, with visits to poll results, biennial elections, political crises, and policy questions of the past twenty-five years. It touches on numerous aspects of American political life as well as economics, art, literature, science, society, fads, and customs that changed with the culture of the country. The story is told in terms of the presidents who shaped and led the nation, the elections that brought and kept them in power, and the dozens of people who collectively played a part in helping mold the national experience from 1980 to 2005.

Author: Martha Joynt Kumar
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 142141659X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 331

View

Book Description
"Having watched from a front row seat as many incumbent and electoral campaign presidential teams managed administration transitions, Martha Kumar was struck by how productively the Bush and Obama teams worked together to effect a smooth transition of power in 2008. She has reflected upon what made the transition so effective, and wonders if it could be a model for future incoming and outgoing administrations. This book focuses on the preparations made by President Bush's transition team as well as those by Senators Obama and McCain as one administration exited and the other entered the White House. Using this recent transition as a lens through which to examine the presidential transition process, Kumar simultaneously outlines the congressional legislation that paved the way for this distinctive transition and interweaves comparative examples from previous administrative transitions going back to Truman-to-Eisenhower. She evaluates the early and continuing actions by the General Services Administration to plan and set up transition offices; the work on financial disclosure issues handled by the Office of Government Ethics; and the Office of Management and Budget's preparatory work. In this fascinating historical and contemporary vivisection of presidential transitions, Kumar maps out, in the words of former NSA advisor General James L. Jones, the characteristics of a smooth "glide path" for presidential campaign staffs and their administrations"--

Author: Michael Allen Meeropol
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 0472123521
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 401

View

Book Description
Michael Meeropol argues that the ballooning of the federal budget deficit was not a serious problem in the 1980s, nor were the successful recent efforts to get it under control the basis for the prosperous economy of the mid-1990s. In this controversial book, the author provides a close look at what actually happened to the American economy during the years of the "Reagan Revolution" and reveals that the huge deficits had no negative effect on the economy. It was the other policies of the Reagan years--high interest rates to fight inflation, supply-side tax cuts, reductions in regulation, increased advantages for investors and the wealthy, the unraveling of the safety net for the poor--that were unsuccessful in generating more rapid growth and other economic improvements. Meeropol provides compelling evidence of the failure of the U.S. economy between 1990 and 1994 to generate rising incomes for most of the population or improvements in productivity. This caused, first, the electoral repudiation of President Bush in 1992, followed by a repudiation of President Clinton in the 1994 Congressional elections. The Clinton administration made a half-hearted attempt to reverse the Reagan Revolution in economic policy, but ultimately surrendered to the Republican Congressional majority in 1996 when Clinton promised to balance the budget by 2000 and signed the welfare reform bill. The rapid growth of the economy in 1997 caused surprisingly high government revenues, a dramatic fall in the federal budget deficit, and a brief euphoria evident in an almost uncontrollable stock market boom. Finally, Meeropol argues powerfully that the next recession, certain to come before the end of 1999, will turn the predicted path to budget balance and millennial prosperity into a painful joke on the hubris of public policymakers. Accessibly written as a work of recent history and public policy as much as economics, this book is intended for all Americans interested in issues of economic policy, especially the budget deficit and the Clinton versus Congress debates. No specialized training in economics is needed. "A wonderfully accessible discussion of contemporary American economic policy. Meeropol demonstrates that the Reagan-era policies of tax cuts and shredded safety nets, coupled with strident talk of balanced budgets, have been continued and even brought to fruition by the neo-liberal Clinton regime." --Frances Fox Piven, Graduate School, City University of New York Michael Meeropol is Chair and Professor of Economics, Western New England College.