Description
Book SynopsisRanging broadly from Andrew Jackson to Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, Mary Stuckey demonstrates how American presidents accomplish the dual enactment of inclusion and exclusion through their rhetorical and political choices.
Trade Review"Presidents claim to speak for ‘we the people.’ Stuckey’s bold and insightful book deconstructs the rhetoric through which presidents have excluded and even vilified some Americans even as they have included and acclaimed others. Through fascinating case studies of some of our best and worst presidents, Stuckey compels us to confront the powerful part that all have played in defining who we are."—Bruce Miroff, author of Icons of Democracy: American Leaders as Heroes, Aristocrats, Dissenters, and Democrats
"Students of history, politics, and rhetoric will profit from this insightful study of the nexus between language and culture."—David Zarefsky, author of Lincoln, Douglas, and Slavery: In the Crucible of Public Debate
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Presidential Rhetoric and National Identity
- 1. Land, Citizenship, and National Identity in Jackson’s America
- 2. Temperance, Character, and Race in the Antebellum United States
- 3. The Business of Government during the Democratic Interregnum of Grover Cleveland, 1885-1889
- 4. Establishing a Transcendent International Order under Woodrow Wilson, 1913-1921
- 5. Balancing the Nation: Brokering FDR’s Economic Union, 1932-1940
- 6. Citizenship Contained: Domesticating God, Family, and Country during the Eisenhower Years
- 7. Managing Diversity in a Fragmented Polity: The Post-Cold War World George H.W. Bush
- Conclusion: Choosing Our National Identity
- Notes
- Index
