Andrew Jackson spoke to Americans in ways that reflected the concerns of a young nation. Grover Cleveland helped citizens redefine themselves after the havoc of the Civil War era. FDR confronted widespread hardship with hope and determination, while Eisenhower spoke to our fears of the Communist menace. Throughout our history, presidents by their very utterances have shaped our sense of who we are as Americans. As Mary Stuckey observes, presidents embrace, articulate, and reinvigorate our sense of national identity. They define who Americans are--often by declaring who they aren't. In...
Andrew Jackson spoke to Americans in ways that reflected the concerns of a young nation. Grover Cleveland helped citizens redefine themselves after th...
Millions of Americans, including hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren, watched in horror as the Challenger shuttle capsule exploded on live television on January 28, 1986. Coupled with that awful image in Americans' memory is the face of President Ronald Reagan addressing the public hours later with words that spoke to the nation's shock and mourning. Focusing on the text of Reagan's speech, author Mary Stuckey shows how President Reagan's reputation as "the Great Communicator" adds significance to our understanding of his rhetoric on one of the most momentous occasions of his...
Millions of Americans, including hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren, watched in horror as the Challenger shuttle capsule exploded on live televis...
Stuckey contends that Reagan's approach is a new phenomenon that will outlast his presidencey, impacting the way future candidates run for office. When rhetoric becomes dissociated from the policies and programs of national government, there is a danger that the symbols, devoid of subsance, become meaningless.
Stuckey contends that Reagan's approach is a new phenomenon that will outlast his presidencey, impacting the way future candidates run for office. Whe...
Part of the "Praeger Series in Political Communication," "Playing the Game" offers an exploration of the rhetoric of the Reagan Revolution. The book fully explores how the rhetoric supported, impeded, and affected Reagan's policy goals and political success. In this work, the author shows how Reagan's use of language in his public speech was instrumental in the creation of the Teflon Presidency, and how use of this language created a situation whereby the President would not remain unscathed forever--as was the case in 1986. Further, Stuckey shows how Reagan's rhetorical success was built...
Part of the "Praeger Series in Political Communication," "Playing the Game" offers an exploration of the rhetoric of the Reagan Revolution. The boo...
George Bush's critics charge the president with paying undue attention to opinion polls, focusing on symbol rather than substance, and allowing the nation to drift at a time that loudly demands leadership. In response, Mr. Bush's defenders applaud him for his prudence in the face of international instability, his resolution in the face of Iraqi aggression, and his realistic approach to national problems. Each chapter of Leadership and the Bush Presidency addresses these issues with specific regard to the upcoming presidential election, the potential for governance in a second term, and the...
George Bush's critics charge the president with paying undue attention to opinion polls, focusing on symbol rather than substance, and allowing the...
Though Jimmy Carter is widely viewed as one of the least effective modern presidents, the human rights agenda for which his administration is known remains high in the national awareness and continues to provide important justifications for presidential and congressional action a quarter-century later. The very elements of Carter's communications on human rights that engendered obstacles to the formation of a coherent and consistent policy--the term's vagueness, the difficulties of applying it, its uneasy relationship with national security interests, and the divergence between Democratic and...
Though Jimmy Carter is widely viewed as one of the least effective modern presidents, the human rights agenda for which his administration is known re...
A study of how the media has affected the American presidency. After presenting a description of American political rhetoric through the early 20th-century, this book examines the use of the media and rhetorical style of presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to George Bush.
A study of how the media has affected the American presidency. After presenting a description of American political rhetoric through the early 20th-ce...
No modern president has had as much influence on American national politics as Franklin D. Roosevelt. During FDR s administration, power shifted from states and localities to the federal government; within the federal government it shifted from Congress to the president; and internationally, it moved from Europe to the United States. All of these changes required significant effort on the part of the president, who triumphed over fierce opposition and succeeded in remaking the American political system in ways that continue to shape our politics today. Using the metaphor of the good...
No modern president has had as much influence on American national politics as Franklin D. Roosevelt. During FDR s administration, power shifted fr...
Rhetoric is among the most important and least understood elements of presidential leadership. Presidents have always wielded rhetoric as one tool of governance--and that rhetoric was always intended to facilitate political ends, such as image building, persuasion of the mass public, and inter-branch government persuasion. But as mass media has grown and then fragmented, as the federal bureaucracy has continued to both expand and calcify, and as partisanship has heightened tensions both within Congress and between Congress and the Executive, rhetoric is an increasingly important element of...
Rhetoric is among the most important and least understood elements of presidential leadership. Presidents have always wielded rhetoric as one tool ...
The 1932 election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt seemed to hold the promise of Democratic domination for years to come. However, leading up to the 1936 election, persistent economic problems, a controversial domestic agenda, and the perception of a weak foreign policy were chipping away at public support. The president faced unrelenting criticism from both the Left and the Right, and it seemed unlikely that he would cruise to the same clear victory he enjoyed in 1932. But 1936 was yet another landslide win for FDR, which makes it easy to forget just how contested the campaign was. In...
The 1932 election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt seemed to hold the promise of Democratic domination for years to come. However, leading up to the 19...
