Command of Office: How War, Secrecy, and Deception Transformed the Presidency, from Theodore Roosevelt to George W. Bush Book

"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)Read More