Ronald Johnson's Modernist Collage Poetry is the first monograph to address the legacy of the American poet, Ronald Johnson (1935-1998). Drawing upon never before seen archival material, this book sets out to understand Johnson's poetry in the context of the "New American" collage tradition, stretching from Ezra Pound to Louis Zukofsky and beyond. Additionally, Ross Hair assesses Johnson's work in relation to wider questions concerning literary chronologies, especially the discontinuities commonly seen to exist between nineteenth-century Romantic and twentieth-century modernist literary...

Cinematic depictions of real U.S. presidents from Abraham Lincoln to George W. Bush explore how Hollywood movies represent American history and politics on screen. Morgan and his contributors show how films blend myth and reality to present a positive message about presidents as the epitome of America's values and idealism until unpopular foreign wars in Vietnam and Iraq led to a darker portrayal of the imperial presidency, operated by Richard Nixon and Bush 43. This exciting new collection further considers how Hollywood has continually reinterpreted historically significant presidents,...

What policy is best for the United States to reduce the threat of Islamic extremist terrorism? Recent American presidents have applied alternative conflict resolution approaches. Clinton practiced conflict avoidance, talking tough but rarely retaliating against anti-American terrorist attacks. G. W. Bush adopted a fighter approach and the Global War on Terrorism and military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq reflect this strategy. Obama introduced a third alternative: problem solving and extending peaceful overtures while keeping up resistance. Will the strategy succeed? Feste analyzes...

Some may not remember, but there was a brief time in the summer of 1992 when Bill Clinton was trailing behind both Ross Perot and popular incumbent George H. Bush, making the Democrats' chances for the White House look futile. Democrats still looked back to past presidents who embodied the ideals of a century: FDR, Truman, and JFK. Bill Clinton and Al Gore used the memories of these candidates, stored in America's collective consciousness, to translate passion into victory and to reinvigorate the Democratic party. This book is a look back at the importance of all the right moves made by Bill...

Since President George Washington's Proclamation of Neutrality in 1793, there has been an ongoing debate concerning the proper scope and exercise of presidential unilateral powers. With a mere 'stroke of the pen, ' presidents can change the political statu

This book is an examination of the manner in which American presidents respond to pandemics and other public health crises. Closer examination, however, suggests the contrary, demonstrating the potential of government to act quickly and effectively against public health emergencies, even when facing formidable obstacles.

The Unsustainable Presidency develops a structural theory of the office by challenging and redefining the twin imperatives upon which the modern chief executive was constructed: unlimited economic growth and national security through the expansion of empire. Neither goal is sustainable in a world of global climate change and the waning of US military supremacy. Thus the modern presidency is an unsustainable office that as currently constituted is incapable of offering solutions to the problems confronting America and the world. The book's distinctive contributions center on building a...

Since ratification of the 22nd Amendment in 1951, five American presidents-Eisenhower, Reagan, Clinton, Bush, and Obama-have been elected to serve a second term. Presumably, by virtue of their term-limited status, these presidents are free from electoral p

During presidential elections a quadrennial debate emerges, wherein candidates lay claim to qualification for the presidency based on their prior professional experiences. Usually this entails invoking the legacy of one of the great presidents, who followed the same trajectory to the White House. Missing from this debate is a systematic analysis of how the different job experiences prepared the population of all presidents for service. For each of the greats who followed a particular pathway to the presidency there is at least one failure who shared the pathway. This book takes both a...

Conceptions of political leadership in the United States value qualities considered traditionally masculine and largely reject qualities that are considered feminine. To what extent does the media play a role in the maintenance of this gender hierarchy, where masculinity is the norm-and preference-in American politics? Meredith Conroy's analysis of presidential election media coverage finds that the media often uses gender conflict framing to create narratives in which a more masculine candidate is in conflict with a more feminine candidate, regardless of a candidate's sex. Furthermore, she...