The Presidential Difference: Leadership Style from F.D.R. to Clinton (Princeton paperbacks) Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

The Presidential Difference: Leadership Style from F.D.R. to Clinton (Princeton paperbacks) Book

Princeton University's Fred I. Greenstein caps off an illustrious career as a presidential scholar with The Presidential Difference. This book won't fundamentally change the way anybody looks at the last 11 chief executives--Greenstein's earlier work The Hidden-Hand Presidency revolutionized the academy's view of Eisenhower--but it does provide a worthwhile series of minibiographies and analytical summations. Greenstein rates his subjects in several categories: communication, organization, political skill, vision, cognitive style, and emotional intelligence. His assessments can be quite frank: Roosevelt is the source of "endless positive lessons"; Truman "illustrates the cost of a defective communication style and a situation-determined approach to presidential leadership"; Ford is "underappreciated"; and so on. Who is Greenstein's favorite? It's clearly FDR, even though he confronts the question with an amusing anecdote about LBJ. Walking on a tarmac in Vietnam, an airman says, "This is your helicopter, Mr. President." Johnson replies, "They are all my helicopters." Writes Greenstein: "Each of the modern presidents is a source of insight, as much for his weaknesses as his strengths. The variation among them provides intellectual leverage, permitting comparisons and expanding our sense of the possible." And so, he writes, "They are all my presidents." --John J. Miller Read More

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  • Product Description

    Drawing on a quarter-century's work, Fred I. Greenstein, one of our keenest observers of the modern presidency, provides a fascinating and instructive account of the qualities that have served well and poorly in the Oval Office from Franklin D. Roosevelt's first hundred days to the beginning of George W. Bush's presidency. Greenstein offers a series of bottom-line judgments on each of his twelve subjects and a bold new explanation of why presidents succeed or fail. Previous analysts have placed their bets on the president's political prowess or personal character. Yet by the first standard, LBJ should have been our greatest president, and by the second the nod would go to Jimmy Carter. Greenstein surveys each president's record in public communication, political skill, vision, cognitive style, and emotional intelligence--and argues that the last is the most important in predicting presidential success.

  • 0691090831
  • 9780691090832
  • Fred I. Greenstein
  • 6 August 2001
  • Princeton University Press
  • Paperback (Book)
  • 300
  • New edition
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