{"product_id":"the-lost-soul-of-the-american-presidency-the-decline-into-demagoguery-and-the-prospects-for-renewal-9780700630394","title":"The Lost Soul of the American Presidency: The Decline into Demagoguery and the Prospects for Renewal","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe American presidency is not what it once was. Nor  Stephen F. Knott contends  what it was meant to be. Taking on an issue as timely as Donald Trumps latest tweet and old as the American republic  the distinguished presidential scholar documents the devolution of the American presidency from the neutral  unifying office envisioned by the framers of the Constitution into the demagogic  partisan entity of our day.  The presidency of popular consent  or the majoritarian presidency that we have today  far predates its current incarnation. The executive office as James Madison  George Washington  and Alexander Hamilton conceived it would be a source of national pride and unity  a check on the tyranny of the majority  and a neutral guarantor of the nations laws. The Lost Soul of the American Presidency shows how Thomas Jeffersons Revolution of 1800 remade the presidency  paving the way for Andrew Jackson to elevate majority rule into an unofficial constitutional principleand contributing to the disenfranchisement  and worse  of African Americans and Native Americans. In Woodrow Wilson  Knott finds a worthy successor to Jefferson and Jackson. More than any of his predecessors  Wilson altered the nations expectations of what a president could be expected to achieve  putting in place the political machinery to support a presidential government.  As difficult as it might be to recover the lost soul of the American presidency  Knott reminds us of presidents who resisted pandering to public opinion and appealed to our better angelsGeorge Washington  John Quincy Adams  Abraham Lincoln  and William Howard Taft  among otherswhose presidencies suggest an alternative and offer hope for the future of the nations highest office.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45657415057461,"sku":"ByrdShop_0700630392","price":32.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780700630394.jpg?v=1782038112","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-lost-soul-of-the-american-presidency-the-decline-into-demagoguery-and-the-prospects-for-renewal-9780700630394","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}