Inventing the job of president : leadership style from George Washington to Andrew Jackson

176 Pages·2009·1.57 MB·English

by  Greenstein

Inventing the Job of President
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Leadership Style
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from George Washington
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Fred I. Greenstein
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INVENTING THE JOB OF PRESIDENT
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Frontispiece. George Washington, 1796. Oil on canvas by Gilbert Stuart, Ameri-
can, 1755–1828. Reproduced courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston;
William Francis Warden Fund, John H. and Ernestine A. Payne Fund, Common-
wealth Cultural Preservation Trust. Jointly owned by the Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston, and the National Portrait Gallery, Washington D.C.
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INVENTING THE
JOB OF PRESIDENT
Leadership Style
from George Washington to Andrew Jackson
F I. G
RED REENSTEIN
P r i n c e t o n U n i v e r s i t y P r e s s
P r i n c e t o n a n d O x f o r d
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Copyright © 2009 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street,
Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Greenstein, Fred I.
Inventing the job of president : leadership style
from George Washington to Andrew Jackson / Fred I. Greenstein.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-691-13358-4 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Presidents—United States—
History—18th century. 2. Presidents—United States—History—19th century. 3.
Presidents—United States—Biography. 4. Political leadership—United States—Case
studies. 5. United States—Politics and government—1783–1865. I. Title.
E176.1.G829 2009
973.8092'2—dc22 2008048715
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available
This book has been composed in Sabon
Printed on acid-free paper. ∞
press.princeton.edu
Printed in the United States of America
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
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To my grandchildren
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CONTENTS
List of Illustrations ix
Chapter 1 The Presidential Difference in the Early Republic 1
Chapter 2 The Foundational Presidency of George Washington 9
Chapter 3 John Adams: Absentee Chief Executive 25
Chapter 4 Thomas Jefferson and the Art of Governance 35
Chapter 5 The Anticlimactic Presidency of James Madison 51
Chapter 6 The Political Competence of James Monroe 63
Chapter 7 The Political Incompetence of John Quincy Adams 75
Chapter 8 Andrew Jackson: Force of Nature 85
Chapter 9 Presidents, Leadership Qualities,
and Political Development 96
Appendix Background on the Early Presidencies 105
Notes 123
Further Reading 137
Acknowledgments 151
Index 153
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure 2.1. George Washington, American, c. 1790s. Oil
on canvas, 53 cm x 43 cm. © The Cleveland
Museum of Art, Hinman B. Hurlbut
Collection, 2552, 1921 10
Figure 3.1. John Adams, oil painting by John Trumbull
(1793) Reproduced courtesy of the National
Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution,
Washington, DC; photo © Art Resource, NY 24
Figure 4.1. Thomas Jefferson, oil painting by Rembrandt
Peale, 1805, The New-York Historical Society 34
Figure 5.1. James Madison, oil painting by James Sharples Sr.,
from life, 1796–1797. Reproduced courtesy of
the Independence National Historical Park,
Philadelphia, PA 50
Figure 6.1. James Monroe, oil painting by William James
Hubbard, c. 1832. From Images of American
Political History (http://teachpol.tcnj.edu/amer
._pol_hist/) 62
Figure 7.1. John Quincy Adams, oil painting by George Caleb,
c. 1844. Reproduced courtesy of the National
Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution,
Washington, DC; photo © Art Resource, NY 74
Figure 8.1. Andrew Jackson on Sam Patch, oil painting by Ralph
Earl, c. 1833. Reproduced courtesy of The Hermitage:
Home of President Andrew Jackson, Nashville, TN 84
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