Overview

What Does the American Presidency Mean? The Need for Interpretation in Presidency Studies makes a compelling case for how interpretivism contributes to our understanding of the American presidency. This brief book is accessible and inviting, regardless of a reader’s background in presidency studies or interpretivism. Part I explores several dimensions of interpretivist and positivist methodologies. Chapters discuss the characteristics of interpretivism, genealogically trace positivism’s dominance in presidency studies, and identify how attributes of the presidency that raise methodological challenges for positivism are the same that make it fertile ground for interpretivism. Part II explores a wide range of interpretive scholarship on the American presidency, including studies of presidential meaning making, the institution’s historical-political development, presidential symbolism, the construction of the presidency, and the presidential spectacle. It concludes with an interpretation of recent developments emphasizing the timeliness, relevance, and importance of methodological pluralism in presidency studies. The book is written for anyone interested in the meaning of the presidency, whether scholars or graduate students in American political science, or those from other disciplines within and outside the United States. It is appropriate for courses on the American Presidency, Executive Politics, Political Communication, Rhetoric, and Social Science Methods, among others.

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9781041036814

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Richard Holtzman has done what many strive for and few accomplish, namely present sophisticated insights in language that is approachable and unpretentious. Holtzman's core argument is that we cannot study the presidency without interpreting the presidency--that we must understand what the presidency is and means before we can establish what presidents do and how they do it. Interpretative research, Holtzman shows, thus forms the epistemic foundation on which presidency scholarship necessarily stands. Scholars from diverse backgrounds and methodologies will gain immensely from this book, which deserves to become a standard on graduate reading lists in American politics. Charles Zug, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Missouri

Author Information

Richard Holtzman is Associate Professor of Political Science in the Department of Politics, Law, and Society at Bryant University. Holtzman's teaching and research focus on American Politics, and he has published on Presidential Rhetoric and on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.

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