Postmodern Presidency - by Steven Schier (Paperback)

About the Book

Including the conflict in Kosovo, the WTO meeting in Seattle, and new developments in the 2000 presidential campaign, The Postmodern Presidency is the most comprehensive and current assessment of Bill Clinton's presidency available in print.

Book Synopsis

Choice Outstanding Academic Book. As America's first truly postmodern president, Bill Clinton experienced both great highs and stunning lows in office that will shape the future course of American politics. Clinton will forever be remembered as the first elected president to be impeached, but will his tarnished legacy have lasting effects on America's political system? Including the conflict in Kosovo, the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle, and new developments in the 2000 presidential campaign, The Postmodern Presidency is the most comprehensive and current assessment of Bill Clinton's presidency available in print. The Postmodern Presidency examines Clinton's role in redefining the institution of the presidency, and his affect on future presidents' economic and foreign policies. The contributors highlight the president's unprecedented courtship of public opinion; how polls affected policy; how the president gained "celebrity" status; how Clinton's "postmodern" style of public presidency helped him survive the 1994 elections and impeachment; and how all of this might impact future presidents. This new text also demonstrates how the Clinton presidency changed party politics in the public and in Congress, with long-term implications and costs to both Republicans and his own Democratic party, while analyzing Clinton's effect on the 1990s "culture wars," the politics and importance of gender, and the politics and policy of race. This text is a must for anyone who studies, teaches, or has an interest in the American presidency and politics.

Review Quotes

The Postmodern Presidency (also) demonstrates how the Clinton presidency changed parties in the public and in Congress, with long tern implications and costs to both Republicans and Democrates, while analyzing Clinton's effect on the 1999s "culture wars", the politics and importance of gender, and the politics and policy of race. A stongly recommended addition to the 20th century political science and American political history reading lists and reference collections, The Postmodern Presidency is informative, engaging, insightful, and though - provoking.-- "Wisconsin Bookwatch"

A convincing argument that Americans will be reckoning with Clinton long after the Clinton presidency has ended. In his relationships with Congress, in altering the contours of partisan politics, and in changing the substance of what Americans discuss in domestic and foreign policy, this book provides us with several pictures of the altered political landscape. A must read.-- "John Kenneth White, Catholic University of America"

Emphasizes the way the Clinton administration gave expression to the cultural and political themes of the post-modern age with which, Schier contends, the administration functioned. . . . The book examines diverse aspects of the Clinton presidency. Its chapters range over topics such as economic policy, race and gender politics, foreign policy, and Clinton's relations with the public.-- "Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare"

Examines a variety of areas including foreign policy, economic policy, the media, the public, gender, the party system, and culture under the Clinton presidency. . . . It is a harbringer of many to come as generations, ours and future, grapple with the phenomenal challenge of a president whose larger than life stature is unmistaably visible already.-- "Virginia Quarterly Review"

Schier . . . has very ably edited what is certainly going to be one of many academic retrospectives of the Clinton presidency. . . . This book would make an especially timely and valuable collection fo undergraduate courses on the presidency.-- "Choice"

This excellent book helps unravel and put into perspective the complex, contradictory, and paradoxical impact of the Clinton years.-- "Michael A. Genovese, Loyola Marymount University"

This fine collection of first appraisal will not be the final explication of the Clinton era, but will serve as an important source for those that follow.-- "ForeWord"

About the Author

Steven E. Schier, the Dorothy H. and Edward C. Congdon Professor of Political Science at Carleton College, is the author or editor of numerous books including The Postmodern Presidency: Bill Clinton's Legacy in U.S. Politics, and By Invitation Only: The Rise of Exclusive Politics in the United States.