The Evolving Presidency: Addresses, Cases, Essays, Letters, Reports, Resolutions, Transcripts, and Other Landmark Documents, 1787-2004

by Michael Nelson (Editor)

The ideal primary documents reader for any history or political science course focusing on the presidency. This fascinating--and very affordable--collection of 50 primary source documents offers a compact yet broad-based look at the development of the executive office. With judicious editing and contextual headnotes by Michael Nelson, students get a look at both the personalities and ideas that have shaped the institution, as well as insight into significant cases and events that play pivotal roles in American legal, political, and constitutional history. Based on extensive feedback from users, the second edition includes 9 new selections that feature both historical and recent pieces--from Lincoln's second inaugural address to the Bush Doctrine--dramatically showing students how presidents chart U.S. history.

289 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Michael Nelson is the Fulmer Professor of Political Science at Rhodes College. He has published multiple books, the most recent of which is Resilient America: Electing Nixon, Channeling Dissent, and Dividing Government (2014). Other recent books are The American Presidency: Origins and Development, 1776–2014, with Sidney Milkis (2015); The Presidency and the Political System, 10th ed. (2014); and The Elections of 2012 (2013). He has published numerous articles in scholarly journals such as the Journal of Politics and Political Science Quarterly and in periodicals such as Virginia Quarterly Review, the Claremont Review of Books, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. Although most of his articles have been about American politics and government, he also has written about C. S. Lewis, Frank Sinatra, Charles Dickens, Garrison Keillor, football, and baseball. More than 50 of these articles have been reprinted in anthologies of political science, history, and English composition. He is editor of the American Presidential Elections book series for the University Press of Kansas and is currently writing a book about the 1992 election.

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