Chapter 1 Not What the Founders Had in Mind
The Presidency Has Grown—and the Citizens Have Shrunk
What Makes a Truly Great President?
Measuring Presidents—the Forgotten Yardstick
Chapter 2 The Presidency the Founders Created
The Electoral College and the Creation of “Deliberative Majorities”
The Founders on the Character of the Executive Office
George Washington’s Republican Modesty
Our Early Presidents: Defenders of the Constitution
The Birth of the Modern Presidency
Chapter 3 Woodrow Wilson, 1913–1921
Wilsonian “Progress,” on a Collision Course with the Constitution
Wilson’s “Mature Freedom” versus the Founders’ “Liberty”
Wilson on the President: Visionary Leader, Voice of the People, and Crusher of the Opposition
Wilson, Enthusiast for Bureaucracy
Chapter 4 Warren G. Harding, 1921–1923
The Most Underrated Modern President
An Unlikely Nomination, a Landslide Election
Solid Achievements in Foreign Affairs
Harding’s Posthumous Reputation
Chapter 5 Calvin Coolidge, 1923–1929
A Classical American Education
Coolidge’s One Supreme Court (Dis)Appointment
Chapter 6 Herbert Hoover, 1929–1933
Hoover Tries to Fix the Depression, Inadvertently Makes It Great
Out of Office, Hoover Moves Right
Chapter 7 Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1933–1945
The Modern Left Is Far Left of FDR
FDR’s Living Constitutionalism
FDR’s Assault on the Judicial Branch
FDR’s Lasting Legacy: A Supreme Court Unconstrained by the Constitution
Chapter 8 Harry Truman, 1945–1953
Truman’s Last Great Achievement: Cold War Strategy
Chapter 9 Dwight David (“Ike”) Eisenhower, 1953–1961
Not an Ideological Conservative
Chapter 10 John F. Kennedy, 1961–1963
Character and Performance in Office
Botching the Cuban Missile Crisis
Chapter 11 Lyndon Baines Johnson, 1963–1969
The “Great Society” and the “War on Poverty”: Johnson Fails at Home
The Vietnam War: Johnson Fails Abroad
A Low Point in Judicial History
Chapter 12 Richard M. Nixon, 1969–1974
Nixon’s Complicated Character and Forgotten Magnanimity
Nixon’s Liberalism on Domestic Policy
Chapter 13 Gerald Ford, 1974–1977
A Mixed Record on the Constitution
Chapter 14 James Earl Carter, 1977–1981
President Carter’s Constitutional Grade
Chapter 15 Ronald Wilson Reagan, 1981–1989
The President’s Prerogative Power
One Bull’s Eye and Two Close Shots
Chapter 16 George H. W. Bush, 1989–1993
Chapter 17 William Jefferson Clinton, 1993–2001
Close Enough for Government Work
The High Cost of Bad Character
Chapter 18 George Walker Bush, 2001–2009
More Compassionate Than Conservative?
Defending America, Enraging the Left
Chapter 19 Barack Hussein Obama, 2009–?
Obama’s “Fourth Wave” Ambitions
The Nature of Obama’s Radicalism
Obama’s Contempt for the Middle Class
Holding the Constitution in Contempt