The Presidents: The Transformation of the American Presidency from Theodore Roosevelt to George W. Bush

The Presidents: The Transformation of the American Presidency from Theodore Roosevelt to George W. Bush

by Stephen Graubard

Penguin $178

In his review of Chris Patten's Not Quite the Diplomat, Stephen Graubard seems to share the former Hong Kong governor's view that the US is no longer up to the job of global leadership. Until China and India are able to provide guidance, 'only Europe, in alliance with the United States, can create the institutions and rules necessary for safety in the 21st century'. In The Presidents, the professor of history at Brown University devotes a chapter each to the last century's 18 US presidents from Theodore Roosevelt to George W. Bush. He endorses only the two Roosevelts, Woodrow Wilson and Harry Truman. Graubard's engrossing thesis leads to the conclusion that Bush is merely hastening the death of American idealism in favour of expediency, the 'tyranny of the majority' and, as one reviewer writes, a 'subservience to corporate gangsterism ... praising God while stopping one's ears and eyes to the obvious'.