Study of the political behavior, organization inner life and outlook of the entire Federal establishment in Washington, D.C. During the Jeffersonian era.

This classic collection of studies, first published in 1980, contributes to the revival of interest in the powers and duties of the American presidency. Unlike many previous books on the constitution and the president, the contributors to this volume are political scientists, not law professors. Accordingly, they display political scientists' concern with structures as well as power, with conflict between the branches of government as well as their functional separation, and with political prescription as well as legal analysis. Underlying the entire volume is a persistent attention to the nature of executive power and its particular manifestation in the American system. Part One introduces the foundations that underlie contemporary issues, including the famous James Madison-Alexander Hamilton debate over the powers of the presidency. Contemporary political and scholarly controversies, which are the subjects of Part Two, include the constitutionality of the War Powers Resolution of 1973, the legislative veto, executive privilege and secrecy, the character of the presidency, presidential selection, and the nature of executive power. The essays in The Presidency in the Constitutional Order represent some of the most cogent thought available about the highest elected office in America, and the themes of the volume continue to be timely and provocative.

Illustrated with plans, maps, and new and historic photographs, the second edition of Worthy of the Nation provides researchers and general readers with an appealing and authoritative view of the planning and evolution of the federal district.

Examines the reconstruction of institutional power relationships that had to be negotiated among the courts, the parties, the President, the Congress, and the states in order to accommodate the expansion of national administrative capacities around the turn of the twentieth century.

When James Ogilvie arrived in America in 1793, he was a deeply ambitious but impoverished teacher. By the time he returned to Britain in 1817, he had become a bona fide celebrity known simply as Mr. O, counting the nation's leading politicians and intellectuals among his admirers. And then, like so many meteoric American luminaries afterward, he fell from grace. The Strange Genius of Mr. O is at once the biography of a remarkable performer--a gaunt Scottish orator who appeared in a toga--and a story of the United States during the founding era. Ogilvie's career featured many of the hallmarks of celebrity we recognize from later eras: glamorous friends, eccentric clothing, scandalous religious views, narcissism, and even an alarming drug habit. Yet he captivated audiences with his eloquence and inaugurated a golden age of American oratory. Examining his roller-coaster career and the Americans who admired (or hated) him, this fascinating book renders a vivid portrait of the United States in the midst of invention.

The administration of John Adams was a period of rapid change, internal discord, and the continual threat of war. Few of the nation's chief executives have been subjected to such immediate and ever-present danger of foreign involvement and national destruction, to such bitter animosities and serious cleavages within their administrations, or to such constant need for decision making as was John Adams. In the face of such adversity Adams successfully pursued a policy of neutrality and conciliation and, in so doing, provided time for the country to grow strong and to prosper. Yet, despite the seriousness of the country's problems and the contributions of his administration, he is seldom designated as one of the great American presidents. Of the many who helped create the nation and lead it through those first difficult years, Adams alone has come to be judged largely in terms of the descriptions and appraisals written by his personal enemies and political detractors. Over the years, historians have generally accepted and emphasized the weaknesses, faults, and mistakes his opponents ascribed to him. In this volume, however, Ralph Adams Brown presents a new evaluation of John dams and of his four years in the presidency. The portrait drawn by Adams's enemies disappears and the second president emerges as a world citizen whose insight, judgment, and perseverance held the young nation together in a critical period. This volume focuses closely on the most significant aspect of Adams's presidency, foreign affairs. As an emerging nation without economic stability or military might, the United States could have become hopelessly caught in the web of European intrigues and power struggles. Adams not only faced serious problems with France and Spain, but also had to be continually alert to the complexities of the nation's relationship with Great Britain. Brown examines the country's increasing concern with matters of defense, and traces Adams's successful efforts to evade foreign entanglements. Unfortunately, many of Adams's important decisions and policies ran counter to the wishes of strong, ambitious, and verbal elements in his own political party. Describing the vicious personal attacks to wich Adams was subjected, and the devious and disloyal maneuvers of his cabinet members, Brown traces Adams's difficulties with Timothy Pickering, James McHenry, Oliver Wolcott, Jr., Alexander Hamilton, and others. He documents Adams's steadfastness to his ideals and principles, despite the hostility, exaggerated accusations, and perfidy that surrounded him. Based on more than five years of intensive research, much of in primary sources, Brown's study sheds new light on the many national problems between 1797 and 1801. Most important, it stands as a reassessment of Adams as a shrewd, sensitive, experienced diplomat; a man of fiery beliefs tempered by superior insight and judgment; a man who, despite his love of freedom and his enthusiasm for the the American Revolution, feared war and mob violence; a man favored broad social reforms and change of government by due process; a man who contributed to the development of the presidency by working diligently to maintain the independence and integrity of the executive office.