Overview

Imagine an American president who imprisoned critics, spread a culture of white supremacy, and tried to upend the law so that he could commit crimes with impunity. Constitutional law and political science professor Corey Brettschneider provides a thoroughly researched account of assaults on democracy by not one such president but by five-John Adams, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Woodrow Wilson, and Richard Nixon. These presidents illuminated the trip wires that can erode or even destroy our democracy. But Brettschneider shows that these presidents didn't have the last word; citizen movements brought the United States back from the precipice by appealing to a democratic understanding of the Constitution and pressuring subsequent reform-minded presidents to realize the promise of ""we the people."" This is a book about citizens-Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, Daniel Ellsberg, and more-who fought back against presidential abuse of power. Their examples give us hope about the possibilities of restoring a fragile democracy.

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9781324006275

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"""An inspired history dramatically rendered: the crises five past presidents inflicted on the nation and the moral sense, political skill, and persistence the people mustered to restore constitutional order. Richard Nixon’s abuse of power, however, eluded recovery—why? The Presidents and the People supplies a guide and issues a warning."" -- Nancy L. Rosenblum, Senator Joseph Clark Research Professor of Ethics in Politics and Government, Harvard University, emerita ""Corey Brettschneider traces a stunning pattern right across American history. Again and again, brave citizens wielded the Constitution against power, arrogance, and racism to save the republic. The Presidents and the People challenges our conventional wisdom about the presidents, the people, the courts, and democracy itself. Deeply researched, beautifully written, dramatic, wise, and inspiring—a must-read for scholars, citizens, and anyone interested in how the United States really works"" -- James A. Morone, author of Hellfire Nation: The Politics of Sin in American History and Republic of Wrath: How American Politics Turned Tribal, From George Washington to"

Author Information

Corey Brettschneider is a professor at Brown University, where he teaches constitutional law and politics. He has written for the New York Times, Politico, the Washington Post, and Time, and is the author of the book The Oath and the Office. He lives in New York.

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