Description
Book SynopsisThe history of presidential dealings with disasters shows that whatever their ideology, presidents need to be prepared to deal with unexpected crises. In recent years, the expectations have grown as the disasters seem to appear to be coming more frequently. Since 2001, numerous unpredictable crises, including terror attacks, massive storms, and an economic collapse, have shaken Americans to their core. It seems as if technology, for all of its beneficences, also provides mankind with increasingly powerful ways to wreak destruction, including nuclear explosions, bioterror attacks, and cyber-attacks. In addition, instantaneous and incessant communications technologies send us word of disasters taking place anywhere in the nation far more rapidly, giving disasters an immediacy that some may have lacked in the past.
In 21st century America, the eyes of the American people look to the president to lead the response to whatever disasters happen to strike. President Obama and his
Trade ReviewLeaders in every sector must do one thing: expect the unexpected. Crises cannot be predicted nor necessarily prevented, and sometimes leaders have to manage multiple crises at once. In Shall We Wake the President?, Tevi Troy provides very useful information for leaders in government and business, as well as personal preparation tips for families, based on his considerable management experience in the Executive Branch. The book is a good reminder that it isn’t enough to prepare for the next day; instead, leaders must be well equipped to handle a crisis from day one. -- Dana Perino, Former Press Secretary to President George W. Bush and co-host of “The Five” on Fox News
The art of leadership emerges not during calm, but in crises—21st-century, premodern, episodic, multiple, sudden, simmering, solvable and existential—and never more so in the age of spreading nuclear weapons and instant communications. Tevi Troy’s fascinating new survey of how presidents dealt with disasters and near disasters is both historical and didactic: what has made a president in the past keep calm and yet forceful during an unforeseen challenge—and what can those in government and the public in their daily lives learn about dealing with catastrophes from our successful and not so successful Commanders-in Chief? -- Victor Davis Hanson, Senior Fellow, the Hoover Institution, Stanford University and author of the national bestsellers Carnage and Culture and A War Like No Other
Shall We Wake the President? is an entertaining and informative tour of how presidents have responded to disasters, and what our country, including future presidents, should do when disaster strikes again. They should be prepared! Dr. Troy will convince you that farsighted preparation can make our nation stronger and our citizens safer. -- Tom Ridge, former Governor of Pennsylvania and first Secretary of Homeland Security
I sure wish I’d had a copy of Tevi Troy’s Shall We Wake the President? when I served in the White House. His emphasis on the importance of communications in successful disaster planning and response is spot on, and he taught me a great deal about how past presidents have taken on the challenge of disaster communications. -- Ari Fleischer, former White House Press Secretary
Disasters, natural and otherwise, can dominate the actions of government leaders and shape dramatically the lives of a country's residents. Preparing for the worst is a high-priority for both. Using historical analysis and his own experiences from inside the Bush White House, Tevi Troy provides a useful guide for presidents and all Americans for every variety of disaster we have seen or might see. -- Norman Ornstein, co-author of It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism
Drawing on history as well as his own years in government, Tevi Troy has brought us an excellent, cogent and sensible look at the looming national traumas that have become a crucial part of an American President’s responsibility and of the complex experience of being an American in the 21st century. -- Michael Beschloss, Presidential Historian
