Presidential Leadership at Historic Crossroads

Course Description

Starting with its inception in the eighteenth century, the American presidency has faced numerous inflection points that have reshaped the office. From its constitutional roots to Washington’s precedents, Theodore Roosvelt’s and Woodrow Wilson’s creation of the “rhetorical presidency,” FDR’s Great Depression and World War II presidency, the Cold War’s impact, Nixon and Watergate, the Global War on Terror, and Trump’s unprecedented tenure, the chief executive’s influence has waxed and waned depending on circumstances and presidential leadership. Using classic and new scholarship, as well as primary sources, this course will examine the challenges and responses of presidents when they have faced and sometimes constructed historic crossroads. Scholarly literature will allow students to trace the development of presidential studies from a traditional emphasis on constitutional authority to the modern focus on political roles, which has produced a tension between the Founders’ concept of the executive branch and the contemporary “personal presidency.”

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