In this volume, Forrest McDonald admits that George Washington was no executive genius, and notes that a number of his advisers and cabinet members were considerably more important in formulating programs and policies than he was. Nevertheless, he maintains that, but for Washington, the office of president might not exist today. McDonald asserts that Washington's reputation as a man of integrity, dignity, candor, and republican virtue was well-deserved, and that he contributed best by serving as a symbol.

The book covers the central concerns of Washington's administration: a complex...

Thomas Jefferson occupies a special niche in the hagiology of American Founding Fathers. His name is invoked for a staggering range of causes; statists and libertarians, nationalists and States' righters, conservatives and radicals all claim his blessing. In this book, Forrest McDonald examines Jefferson's performance as the nation's leader, evaluating his ability as a policy-maker, administrator, and diplomat.

He delineates, carefully and sympathetically, the Jeffersonian ideology and the agrarian ideal that underlay it; he traces the steps by which the ideology was transformed into a...

Tough, concerned, direct, occasionally vulgar, and often partisan--Harry S. Truman would never completely work himself out from the shadow of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Yet Truman partly commands our attention because he was the successful executor of Roosevelt's remarkable political estate.

It is not too much to suggest that the Truman administration, along with that of FDR, constituted the most important turning point in recent U.S. history. During the Roosevelt administration the American state system had changed dramatically: the federal government had rapidly become ascendant over...

Theodore Roosevelt was hearty, frank, freindly, and bold - a president so popular that many Americans believed they knew him personally. Through the force of his personality and excitement of his adventuring, he wove the presidency into the fabric of daily life as no other president had done. Nearly a century later he is remembered as the most colourful chief executive.