
The President is the central figure in American politics. This course examines the creation of the office at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, as well as its evolution over 200-plus years of American history. In terms of contemporary politics, we explore the many aspects of the presidential job description.
During the course, students do original research using historical case studies, resulting in a major paper applying concepts from the course to a particular presidency. The paper will involve textbooks, other books on the presidency, and primary and secondary materials on the specific president.
The Presidency is offered every three to four semesters. It fulfills the "advanced American politics" requirement for the Political Science major. It also applies towards an American Studies major, and towards secondary school endorsement in American government. It is a Writing Emphasis course.

The White House page: some propaganda, some trivia, some useful stuff
Miller Center symposium on presidential domestic policy making featuring advisors from Nixon to George W. Bush... note the Miller Center also has much fascinating information available in their presidential oral history project
Early assessments of the George W. Bush presidency (Click on "Conference Schedule")
The American Political Science Association has an organized section on presidential research
The George Washington Papers at University of Virginia
PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARIES:
The Hoover Presidential Library is
less than 40 miles away in West Branch, IA
Franklin D. Roosevelt,
Hyde Park, NY
Harry S. Truman,
Independence,
MO
Dwight D. Eisenhower,
Abilene, KS
John F. Kennedy, Boston, MA
Lyndon B. Johnson, Austin,
TX
Richard M. Nixon, College
Park, MD
Gerald R. Ford, Ann Arbor,
MI
Jimmy Carter,
Atlanta, GA
Ronald Reagan, Simi Valley,
CA
George Bush, College
Station,
TX
William J. Clinton,
Little
Rock, AR
An accessible site representing all U.S. Presidents
americanpresidency.org: John T. Woolley of UC-Santa Barbara has an excellent collection of presidential speeches (some with video and audio) as well as data and graphs
Interesting book
about Central Intelligence Agency briefings, 1952-1992
War Department Papers,
1784-1800 (George Mason University)
The Federalist Papers: Numbers 67-77 address the creation of the Presidency
Presidential taxes
General history links
A well-recommended Vietnam War site
PBS website on the Viet Nam War
citation guide from the Modern Language Association
Colin Campbell, Bert A. Rockman and Andrew Rudalevige (eds), The George W. Bush Legacy (Congressional Quarterly, 2007)Texts (Spring 2009)
Course Outline
I. ORIGINS AND EVOLUTION OF THE PRESIDENCY
II. THE PRESIDENTIAL JOB DESCRIPTION
The use of public spectacle: Miroff (Nelson 10)Next Course: Contemporary Political Theory
Last Course: The American Congress
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