18c 18th-century 19c 20c 20th-century 60s american american-history american-politics book constitution fdr history johnson law lincoln nixon non-fiction nonfiction political-history politics popular-culture presidents roosevelt sociology twentieth-century u-s-history united-states us-history usa vietnam-war war

From two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., comes one of the most important and influential investigations of the American presidency. The Imperial Presidency traces the growth of presidential power over two centuries, from George Washington to George W. Bush, examining how it has both served and harmed the Constitution and what Americans can do about it in years to come. The book that gave the phrase “imperial presidency to the language, this is a work of “substantial scholarship written with lucidity, charm, and wit (The New Yorker).