The Presidential Image: A History from Theodore Roosevelt to Donald Trump

Description

Presidential Image has become an integral part of the campaign, presidency and legacy of Modern American presidents. Across the 20th century to the age of Trump, presidential image has dominated media coverage and public consciousness, winning elections, gaining support for their leadership in office and shaping their reputation in history. Is the creation of the presidential image part of a carefully conceived public relations strategy or result of the president's critics and opponents? Can the way the media interpret a presidents' actions and words alter their image? And how much influence do cultural outputs contribute to the construction of a presidential image? Using ten presidential case studies. this edited collection features contributions from scholars and political journalists from the UK and America, to analyse aspects of Presidential Image that shaped their perceived effectiveness as America's leader, and to explore this complex, controversial, and continuous element of modern presidential politics.

Iwan Morgan is Professor of US Studies at the Institute of the Americas, University College London, and Commonwealth Fund Chair of American History in the UCL Department of History. He is also a distinguished fellow of the Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford, recipient of the British Association of American Studies Honorary Fellowship in 2014, and winner of the Neustadt Prize in 2010. He is the author of Reagan: An American Icon (2016). Mark White is Professor of History at Queen Mary, University of London. He is the author of eight books, including The Presidency of Bill Clinton (2012) and Kennedy: A Cultural History of an American Icon (2013). He has written for the Independent and BBC History Magazine, and appeared on BBC Radio 4 and a television documentary on JFK. Michael Cullinane is Professor of U.S. History at the University of Roehampton, London. He gained a PhD in History from University College Cork. He has taught at UC Cork, the University of Leicester and Northumbria University. His research has explored US foreign policy, especially during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, as well as the role played by the media and the issue of memory in American history. He has authored 20 publications, including the following books: and Liberty and American Anti-Imperialism: 1898-1909 (2012); [as co-author] The Open Door Era: United States Foreign Policy in the Twentieth Century, co-authored (2017), and Theodore Roosevelt's Ghost: The History and Memory of an American Icon (2017), John Dumbrell is Emeritus Professor of Government at Durham University and was previously Professor of Politics at the University of Leicester and the University of Keele. He is the author of numerous books on the modern American presidency in general and US foreign policy in particular, including: The Carter Presidency: A Re-evaluation(1995); American Foreign Policy: Carter to Clinton (1996); A Special Relationship: Anglo-American Relations from the Cold War to Iraq (2006); Clinton's Foreign Policy: Between the Bushes, 1992-2000 (2009); and Rethinking the Vietnam War (2012). Bob Green was awarded his PhD at Queen Mary University of London for his dissertation on the domestic policy of the Jimmy Carter presidency. He teaches at Queen Mary and is presently engaged on turning his doctoral study into a published monograph. Clodagh Harrington is Senior Lecturer in American Politics at De Montfort University. She has also served as Chair of the American Politics Group. Her scholarship encompasses the American presidency, US foreign policy, and the nature of political scandal in America. She has published essays on the rhetoric of Condoleezza Rice, Barack Obama's leadership, and the Tea Party Movement. She edited and contributed to the international collection, Obama's Washington: Political Leadership in a Polarized Era (2015) and is presently co-writing a book on the impact of the Trump presidency on Obama's legacy for publication by Edinburgh University Press. Dean J. Kotlowski is Professor of History at Salisbury University, Maryland. He has written numerous books and articles across the spectrum of minority rights, presidential policy on civil rights, and New Deal era politics. His publications include: Nixon's Civil Rights: Politics, Policy and Principle (2001) and Paul V. McNutt and the Age of FDR (2015). He has served as a Fulbright Scholar in Austria and is a regular commentator for the US media, notably for C-Span. He is presently working on a comparative study of the US government's policy on Native American rights and the Australian government's policy on Aborigine rights. Tony McCulloch is Senior Fellow in North American Studies at the UCL Institute of the Americas. He has also taught at the universities of Middlesex, Hertfordshire, and Canterbury Christ Church where he was Head of History and American Studies and Director of Canadian Studies. He is a former chair of British Association of Canadian Studies and has played a very active role in the Transatlantic Studies Association. He has written extensively on US foreign policy, particularly during the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt. He is presently working on a two-volume history of Anglo-US relations in the Age of FDR for publication by Edinburgh University Press. Mara Oliva is Lecturer in Modern American History at the University of Reading. She received a PhD at the Institute for the Study of the Americas, University of London, and has taught at various universities, including Queen Mary, University of London. A specialist in modern US diplomatic history and its domestic dimensions, she has published numerous articles and a book, The Eisenhower Administration, American Public Opinion and the People's Republic of China (2018). She is the co-editor of The Trump Presidency: From Campaign Trail to World Stage (2019) and is currently researching a monograph on Richard Nixon. Sean J. Savage is Professor of Political Science at Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame, Indiana. A specialist on presidents and party politics, he has published, in addition to numerous article, the following monographs: Roosevelt: The Party Leader, 1932-1945 (1991), Truman and the Democratic Party (1997), and JFK, LBJ, and The Democratic Party (2004). He earned an Emerging Scholar Award from the American Political Science Association for the first of these and won a Choice Award for Outstanding Academic Title of 2005 for the third. Tim Stanley is a historian, journalist, and broadcaster, specializing in US history and politics. He is a columnist and leader writer for the Daily Telegraph, writes for CNN, and appears regularly on BBC Question Time. He has a PhD in History from Trinity College, Cambridge, has taught at the universities of Oxford, London and Sussex, and covered the 2016 US presidential election for the Telegraph. He is the author of four books, including Kennedy vs. Carter: The Battle for the Democratic Party's Soul (2010), Making Sense of American Liberalism, co-editor (2012), and Citizen Hollywood: How the Collaboration Between LA and DC Revolutionized American Politics (2014). John Thompson is Emeritus Reader in American History at St. Catherine's College, Cambridge. An authority on US foreign policy and its domestic repercussions in the early decades of the twentieth century, his publications include: Reformers and War: American Progressive Publicists and the First World War (1987), Woodrow Wilson (2002), and A Sense of Power: The Roots of America's Global Role (2015).

This absorbing and incisive book shows that image is far more than a cosmetic concern ... The Presidential Image is a timely reminder that to beat Donald Trump, Joe Biden will need to back up his policy plans with a compelling image. * History Today * Presidents have spent a lot of time and energy crafting their public image, so it's surprising that historians have not given this important subject the same kind of attention. This interesting, imaginative, and original volume goes a long way in filling this historiographical void. * Andrew Preston, Cambridge University * The Presidential Image is a much-needed addition to our understanding of the presidency. Fresh insights into each of these leaders show how powerful image can be, and oftentimes the image is carefully constructed and curated by the president himself. * Luke A. Nichter, Professor of History, Texas A&M University *