Description
Book SynopsisOffers a comprehensive and definitive study of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Liaison Office for Personnel Management (LOPM). Established in 1939 following the release of Roosevelt's Brownlow Committee report, LOPM became a key milestone in the evolution of the contemporary executive-focused civil service.
Trade ReviewMordecai Lee's
A Presidential Civil Service stands out as a substantive contribution to the field of public administration's historical understanding of the nation's current civil service system and its "executive-centric" approach to managing career federal employees." -
Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory"A careful examination of a heretofore obscure topic that deserves attention from public administration scholars. Recommended." -
CHOICE"Lee's deep knowledge, style, scholarship, and mastery of detail make him one of very best historians of US public administration. This is and will remain the definitive study of the origin of the US Presidential Liaison Office for Personnel Management and the long run-up to the establishment of the present-day US Office of Personnel Management. There is much more here about public administration than the establishment and development of the Liaison Office itself, however. Many of the arguments about merit versus management in
A Presidential Civil Service continue to animate civil service reform today." - David H. Rosenbloom, author of
Building a Legislative-Centered Public Administration: Congress and the Administrative State, 1946-1999"An impressive work of scholarship,
A Presidential Civil Service synthesizes a vast amount of archival research. Lee's extensive use of primary sources not only bolsters his findings but also adds color and depth to the story. His most important contribution is his challenge of conventional interpretations of the Brownlow report and its aftermath. Until now, attention has been focused on the report itself and on FDR's failure to gain congressional approval of its central elements. Lee makes a strong case that, in fact, FDR managed to achieve his key purpose of centralized control over federal personnel policy with the creation of the Liaison Office for Personnel Management." - James Thompson, associate professor of public administration, University of Illinois-Chicago
Table of Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1. Origins of the Idea of a Presidential Personnel Agency, 1913-1936
- 2. The Political Battle over Creating a Presidential Personnel Agency, 1937-1939
- 3. FDR Constructs a Personnel Management Apparatus, 1939
- 4. The Liaison Office for Personnel Management in Operation, 1939-1941
- 5. The Liaison Office for Personnel Management in World War II, 1942-1945
- 6. From the Liaison Office for Personnel Management to a Full-Fledged Presidential Personnel Agency, 1945-1979
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
