An edition of Presidential Ambition (1999)

Presidential ambition

how the presidents gained power, kept power, and got things done

1st ed.

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Last edited by MARC Bot
July 15, 2024 | History
An edition of Presidential Ambition (1999)

Presidential ambition

how the presidents gained power, kept power, and got things done

1st ed.

Combining a potent narrative with persuasive and compelling insights, Shenkman reveals that it is not just recent presidents who have been ambitious - and at times frighteningly overambitious, willing to sacrifice their health, family, loyalty, and values as they sought to overcome the obstacles to power - but that they all have.

This volcanic ambition, Shenkman shows, has been essential not only in obtaining power but in facing - and attempting to master - the great historical forces that have continually reshaped the United States, from Manifest Destiny and Emancipation to immigration, the Great Depression, and nuclear weapons.

As Shenkman describes the lives and careers of the most representative and colorful presidents from Washington to Nixon, he shows that those who succeeded in reaching the White House, whatever their flaws, were complicated human beings, idealistic as well as ambitious. Over time, however, they began to make increasingly troubling compromises, leading to a decline in the moral tone of American politics.

What drove politics downward? In a stunning conclusion, Shenkman demonstrates that it wasn't a decline in presidential character that was responsible, but change - the dramatic transformation of the United States from a country of four million in Washington's day to more than a quarter billion today - that made running the country more complicated and difficult. Instead of things getting better and better they got worse and worse as people became used to increasingly promiscuous political practices.

Publish Date
Language
English
Pages
361

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Previews available in: English

Edition Availability
Cover of: Presidential Ambition
Presidential Ambition: Gaining Power at Any Cost
2011, HarperCollins Publishers
in English
Cover of: Presidential Ambition
Presidential Ambition: Gaining Power At Any Cost
February 1, 2000, Harper Perennial
in English
Cover of: Presidential Ambition
Presidential Ambition: Gaining Power At Any Cost
February 1, 2000, Harper Perennial
Paperback in English - 1st ed edition
Cover of: Presidential ambition
Presidential ambition: how the presidents gained power, kept power, and got things done
1999, HarperCollins, HarperCollinsPublishers
in English - 1st ed.

Add another edition?

Book Details


Edition Notes

Includes bibliographical references (p. 343-350) and index.

Published in
New York

Classifications

Dewey Decimal Class
973
Library of Congress
E176.1 .S56 1999, E176.1.S56 1999

The Physical Object

Pagination
xxix, 361 p. ;
Number of pages
361

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL366580M
Internet Archive
presidentialambi00shen
ISBN 10
006018373X
LCCN
98027045
OCLC/WorldCat
98027045, 504197953
Library Thing
464287
Goodreads
3394141

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July 15, 2024 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
March 7, 2023 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
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March 1, 2022 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
April 1, 2008 Created by an anonymous user Imported from Scriblio MARC record