Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Age of Cortelyou : William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt -- Lawyer and the professor : William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson -- Modern presidency recedes : Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover -- Modern presidency revives and grows : Franklin D. Roosevelt -- Presidency in the Cold War era : Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower -- Souring of the modern presidency : John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson -- Rise of the continuous campaign : Richard Nixon -- Modern presidency under siege : Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter -- Modern presidency in a Republican era : Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush -- Perils of the modern presidency : Bill Clinton.

"The Modern American Presidency is a interpretive synthesis of our twentieth-century leaders, filled with intriguing insights into how the presidency has evolved as America rose to prominence on the world stage. Gould traces the decline of the party system and the increasing importance of the media, resulting in the rise of the role of the president as celebrity. He traces the growth of the White House staff and executive bureaucracy. And he shows us a succession of chief executives who increasingly have known less and less about the business of governing the country, observing that most would have had a better historical reputation if they had contented themselves with a single term."--Jacket.