Sign-In
Cart
Defining Americans: The Presidency and National Identity
Paperback
20th Century United States HistoryGeneral Political ScienceUnited States Politics
ISBN13: 9780700635207
Publisher: Univ Pr Of Kansas
Published: Mar 17 2023
Pages: 424
Weight: 1.27
Height: 0.88 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Winner: Bruce E. Gronbeck Political Communication Award
Winner: APSA Presidents and Executive Politics Legacy Award
Andrew Jackson spoke to Americans in ways that reflected the concerns of a young nation. Grover Cleveland helped citizens redefine themselves after the havoc of the Civil War era. FDR confronted widespread hardship with hope and determination, while Eisenhower spoke to our fears of the Communist menace. Throughout our history, presidents by their very utterances have shaped our sense of who we are as Americans.
As Mary Stuckey observes, presidents embrace, articulate, and reinvigorate our sense of national identity. They define who Americans are--often by declaring who they aren't. In this book, she shows how presidential speech has served to broaden the American political community over the past two centuries while at the same time excluding others.
Ranging broadly from Andrew Jackson to Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, Stuckey demonstrates how presidents accomplish the dual enactment of inclusion and exclusion through their rhetorical and political choices. Our early leaders were preoccupied with balancing the growing nation; later presidents were concerned with the nature and definitions of citizenship. By examining the political speeches of presidents exemplifying distinctly different circumstances, she presents a series of snapshots which, when taken together, reveal both the continuity and the changes in our national self-understanding.
Ambitious and sweeping, Stuckey's work documents the tactics that have naturalized and legitimated inclusion and exclusion, tracing the progress of groups such as women and African Americans from political invisibility to partial visibility and eventual inclusion. She also shows how the terms of inclusion have varied with changing political winds, helping us understand how depictions of the powerless by the powerful reflect and influence the status of various groups.
Stuckey's analysis shows how presidents use language rooted in their times and circumstances to frame and influence contemporary definitions of citizenship. A provocative book that documents the changes in our understanding of who is and who isn't one of us, Defining Americans reveals that all presidents draw upon the same set of national ideals, values, and events--but not all use those ideas in precisely the same ways.
Also from
Stuckey, Mary E.
For the Enjoyment of the People: The Creation of National Identity in American Public Lands
Stuckey, Mary E.
Hardcover
Poaching Politics: Online Communication During the 2016 Us Presidential Election
Booth, Paul
Hardcover
Poaching Politics: Online Communication During the 2016 Us Presidential Election
Booth, Paul
Paperback
The Rhetoric of Pnoy: Image, Myth, and Rhetorical Citizenship in Philippine Presidential Speeches
Navera, Gene Segarra
Paperback
The Rhetoric of Pnoy: Image, Myth, and Rhetorical Citizenship in Philippine Presidential Speeches
Navera, Gene Segarra
Hardcover
Leadership and the Bush Presidency: Prudence or Drift in an Era of Change?
Barilleaux, Ryan J.
Stuckey, Mary E.
Hardcover
Also in
United States Politics
Disciplining the Poor: Neoliberal Paternalism and the Persistent Power of Race
Fording, Richard C.
Schram, Sanford F.
Soss, Joe
Paperback
Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism
Wolin, Sheldon S.
Paperback
Shakespeare in a Divided America: What His Plays Tell Us about Our Past and Future
Shapiro, James
Hardcover
Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community's Assets
Kretzmann, John P.
Paperback
Scandinavians in the State House: How Nordic Immigrants Shaped Minnesota Politics
Bergman, Klas
Paperback
Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump
Haberman, Maggie
Swan, Jonathan
Hardcover
The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern Reader
Murray, Melissa
Hardcover
Crisis of the Common Good: The Fight for Meaning and Connection in a Broken America
Murphy, Chris
Hardcover
Into the Wood Chipper: A Whistleblower's Account of How the Trump Administration Shredded Usaid
Enrich, Nicholas
Hardcover
The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon
Schweizer, Peter
Hardcover
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
Rothstein, Richard
Paperback
Last Branch Standing: A Potentially Surprising, Occasionally Witty Journey Inside Today's Supreme Court
Isgur, Sarah
Hardcover
Obstinate Daughters: The Rebels, Writers, and Renegade Women Who Ignited the American Revolution
Kiernan, Denise
Hardcover
Ordinary People, Extraordinary Times: How to Reclaim Your Power, Fight for Freedom, and Reimagine Democracy
Perryman, Skye
Paperback
The First Eight: A Personal History of the Pioneering Black Congressmen Who Shaped a Nation
Clyburn, Jim
Hardcover
Injustice: How Politics and Fear Vanquished America's Justice Department
Leonnig, Carol
Davis, Aaron C.
Hardcover
Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile
Gordon, Doug
Naparstek, Aaron
Goodyear, Sarah
Hardcover
Alito: The Justice Who Reshaped the Supreme Court and Restored the Constitution
Hemingway, Mollie
Hardcover
The Promise of a Nation: Commemorating 250 Years of Patriotism, Resilience, and Aspirations from the National Collection
Smithsonian Institution
Hardcover
Department of Fate: The Promise, the Power, and the Collapse of America's Most Consequential Institution
Maddow, Rachel
Hardcover
The Power of Crisis: How Three Threats - And Our Response - Will Change the World
Bremmer, Ian
Paperback
The Counterrevolution: The Fall and Rise of Donald Trump and the Maga Movement
Hanson, Victor Davis
Hardcover
American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords Are Turning America Into a Monarchy
Onishi, Bradley B.
Hardcover
The Pursuit of Liberty: How Hamilton vs. Jefferson Ignited the Lasting Battle Over Power in America
Rosen, Jeffrey
Hardcover
The Steal: Four Right-Wing Hard-Liners, One Republican Presidency, and the Raid on America's Courts
Wagner, Alex
Hardcover
Liar's Kingdom: How to Stop Trump's Deceit and Save America (Large Print Edition)
Weissmann, Andrew
Paperback
So Ordered: An Originalist's View of the Constitution, the Court, and Our Country
Alito, Samuel A., Jr.
Hardcover
All the Wrong Moves: How Three Catastrophic Decisions Led to the Rise of Trump
Scaramucci, Anthony
Hardcover
A Revolution of Common Sense: How Donald Trump Stormed Washington and Fought for Western Civilization
Jennings, Scott
Hardcover
Revenge for the Sixties: Sam Alito and the Triumph of the Conservative Legal Movement
Canellos, Peter S.
Hardcover
How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will (Large Print Edition)
Kennedy, John
Paperback
The Making and Breaking of the American Constitution: A Thousand-Year History
Peterson, Mark
Hardcover
Don't Tell the President: The Best, Worst, and Mostly Untold Stories from Presidential Advance
Becker, Jean
Collamore, Tom
Hardcover
Trump's Ten Commandments: Strategic Lessons from the Trump Leadership Toolbox
Sonnenfeld, Jeffrey
Hardcover
Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City
Ansfield, Bench
Hardcover
When Companies Run the Courts: How Forced Arbitration Became America's Secret Justice System
Ballou, Brendan
Hardcover
Supremacy: How Rule by the Court Replaced Government by the People
Renan, Daphna
Bowie, Nikolas
Hardcover
Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends
Schweizer, Peter
Paperback
Common Sense in the Age of Trump: A Guide to Keeping Our Republic
Sparrow, Paul M.
Collins, Ronald K. L.
Huxtable, Russell W.
Paperback
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media
Herman, Edward S.
Chomsky, Noam
Paperback
The Game Changer: How Harry Reid Remade the Rules and Showed Democrats How to Fight
Ralston, Jon
Hardcover
The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon (Large Print Edition)
Schweizer, Peter
Paperback
Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time (Tenth Anniversary Edition)
Speck, Jeff
Paperback
Obstinate Daughters: The Rebels, Writers, and Renegade Women Who Ignited the American Revolution (Large Print Edition)
Kiernan, Denise
Hardcover
How to Kill a City: Gentrification, Inequality, and the Fight for the Neighborhood
Moskowitz, Pe
Paperback
The Democracy We Must Keep: Seven Founders, Nine Documents, and the Ideas That Shaped America
Stewart, David O.
Paperback
When You Come at the King: Inside Doj's Pursuit of the President, from Nixon to Trump
Honig, Elie
Hardcover
The Church Committee Report: Revelations from the Bombshell 1970s Investigation Into the National Security State
Guariglia, Matthew
Hochman, Brian
Paperback
The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters
Nichols, Tom
Paperback
The Presidential Pardon: The Short Clause with a Long, Troubled History
Prakash, Saikrishna Bangalore
Hardcover
We Are The Bad Guys: How The U.S. Wages War, Controls Economies, and Calls It Freedom
Lester, Michael
Paperback
Princeton Review AP U.S. Government & Politics Premium Prep, 25th Edition: 6 Practice Tests + Digital Practice Online + Content Review
The Princeton Review
Paperback
This Land Is Your Land: A Road Trip Through U. S. History (Large Print Edition)
Gage, Beverly
Hardcover
How Big Things Get Done: The Surprising Factors That Determine the Fate of Every Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration and Everything in
Flyvbjerg, Bent
Gardner, Dan
Hardcover
Reclaiming Your Community: You Don't Have to Move Out of Your Neighborhood to Live in a Better One
Carter, Majora
Paperback
Kicking the Hornet's Nest: U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East from Truman to Trump
Zoughbie, Daniel E.
Hardcover
What Does the Constitution Actually Say?: A Non-Boring Guide to How Our Democracy Is Supposed to Work
Sheehan, Ben
Paperback
Whiplash: From the Battle for Obamacare to the War on Science
Morone, James a.
Blumenthal, David
Hardcover
The Declaration Of Independence, United States Constitution, Bill Of Rights & Amendments
Fathers, Founding
Paperback
Confronting the Presidents: No Spin Assessments from Washington to Biden
O'Reilly, Bill
Dugard, Martin
Hardcover
When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s
Ganz, John
Paperback
Under the Perfect Sun: The San Diego Tourists Never See
Miller, Jim
Davis, Mike
Mayhew, Kelly
Paperback
Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life
Klinenberg, Eric
Paperback
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
Rothstein, Richard
Hardcover
Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point
Ziblatt, Daniel
Levitsky, Steven
Paperback
The Gumbo Coalition: 10 Leadership Lessons That Help You Inspire, Unite, and Achieve
Morial, Marc
Paperback
How the Democrats Lost America: Making Sense of the 2024 Election and the Future of American Politics
Ferson, Scott
Hardcover
Glory, Grief, and the Gavel: An Inside Guide to Running for Speaker of the House
Leganski, John
Hardcover
Dignity Not Citizenship: The Truth about Immigration No One Is Telling You
Salazar, Maria Elvira
Hardcover
The Pacific Circuit: A Globalized Account of the Battle for the Soul of an American City
Madrigal, Alexis
Paperback
The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President
Lee, Bandy X.
Paperback
The Death and Life of Gentrification: A New Map of a Persistent Idea
Brown-Saracino, Japonica
Hardcover
To Rescue the American Spirit: Teddy Roosevelt and the Birth of a Superpower (Large Print Edition)
Baier, Bret
Paperback