Julian E. Zelizer

"A collection of essays that discuss the legal and constitutional debates over matters of policy throughout United States history"--Provided by publisher.

It has long been a truism that prior to George W. Bush, politics stopped at the water's edge—that is, that partisanship had no place in national security. In Arsenal of Democracy, historian Julian E. Zelizer shows this to be demonstrably false: partisan fighting has always shaped American foreign policy and the issue of national security has always been part of our domestic conflicts. Based on original archival findings, Arsenal of Democracy offers new insights into nearly every major national security issue since the beginning of the cold war: from FDR's masterful management of World War II to the partisanship that scarred John F. Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis, from Ronald Reagan's fight against Communism to George W. Bush's controversial War on Terror. A definitive account of the complex interaction between domestic politics and foreign affairs over the last six decades, Arsenal of Democracy is essential reading for anyone interested in the politics of national security.

"Julian E. Zelizer has gathered together forty essays by renowned historians to capture the full drama, landmark legislation, and most memorable personalities of Congress. Organized around four major periods of congressional history, from the signing of the Constitution to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, this volume brings a fresh perspective to familiar watershed events: the Civil War, Watergate, the Vietnam War. It also gives a behind-the-scenes look at lesser-known legislation debated on the House and Senate floors. Here are the stories behind the 1868 vote to impeach President Andrew Johnson; the rise of Jeannette Rankin, the first woman elected to Congress and a leading advocate for pacifism; and the controversy surrounding James Eastland of Mississippi, who carried civil rights bills in his pockets so they could not come up for a vote. Sidebars further spotlight notables, including Huey Long, Sam Rayburn, and Tip O'Neill, bringing the sweeping history of our lawmaking bodies into sharp focus."--BOOK JACKET.

Merritt Fowler is a natural caretaker. Most of her life she has cared for her beautiful, erratic younger sister, Laura; her self-sacrificing physician husband, Pom; and her lovely, fragile sixteen-year-old daughter, Glynn. Now, in this strange summer of unnaturally warm weather and growing pressures, she is caring too for her husband's destructive, controlling mother, who is ill with advanced Alzheimer's disease. Exhausted and confused, Merritt no longer knows quite who she is or what is important to her. She only knows that something deep inside is about to crack. A fierce family quarrel sends Glynn running west from Atlanta to seek sanctuary with her aunt Laura, a fine actress whose promising Hollywood career is in decline. Merritt goes after her daughter - against Pom's wishes and in the face of his anger - and she impulsively decides to stay in California to see if the widening fissures between mother, sister, and daughter can be healed. After a head-on collision with Laura's shallow, seductive Hollywood world and her betraying film director lover, the three women end up in Laura's red Mustang convertible, barreling up the wild coast from the Palm Springs Desert to the Santa Cruz Mountains outside San Francisco - earthquake country. In a borrowed lodge among the great redwoods, they finally stop to confront one another and their own demons.

Taxing America offers a new interpretation of the American state between 1945 and 1975 by tracing the career of Wilbur D. Mills, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee from 1958 to 1974. Blending methodological insights from history, political science, and sociology, Julian Zelizer provides one of the first comparative histories of income taxation, Social Security, and Medicare in this study of the crucial role Mills played in the national tax agenda as he negotiated between the tax policy community and Congress.

Describes the lives of two orphan girls, one from the Caucasus who is sold into the sex trade, the other who is adopted into the wealthy Zane family of New York, whose unwitting involvement in the world of international crime precipitates their downfall.

"'The Kerner Report' is a powerful window into the roots of racism and inequality in the United States. Drawing together decades of scholarship showing the widespread and ingrained nature of racism, [the report] provided an important set of arguments about what the nation needs to do to achieve racial justice, one that is familiar in today's climate"--Back cover.

How does a peanut farmer become Governor of Georgia and President of the United States? Only in America could such a story be true. Not satisfied with the climate of injustice he witnessed in his daily life, Carter sought a political career and was elected state senator in 1962 and again in 1964. He successfully won the 1970 campaign for Governor of Georgia. In 1975, Carter announced he would run for President. An army of loyal supporters, friends, neighbors, and elected officials, known as the Peanut Brigade, joined the campaign. They traveled across the country, joining Jimmy and Rosalynn, knocking on doors, standing at factory gates, walking streets, asking voters to vote for Jimmy Carter for President. While the basics of his story are well known, they have never been told from the perspective of a "soldier" in the Peanut Brigade. Dorothy Padgett, with an earthy, honest, and Southern voice, tells the story as if new to all of us. Humor and insight abound in this direct telling of how a peanut farmer from Georgia became President and leader of the United States. The secret is in his character, his morality, and in his being truly human.

In a series of fascinating essays that explore topics in American politics from the nation's founding to the present day, The Democratic Experiment opens up exciting new avenues for historical research while offering bold claims about the tensions that have animated American public life. Revealing the fierce struggles that have taken place over the role of the federal government and the character of representative democracy, the authors trace the contested and dynamic evolution of the national polity. The contributors, who represent the leading new voices in the revitalized field of American political history, offer original interpretations of the nation's political past by blending methodological insights from the new institutionalism in the social sciences and studies of political culture. They tackle topics as wide-ranging as the role of personal character of political elites in the Early Republic, to the importance of courts in building a modern regulatory state, to the centrality of local political institutions in the late twentieth century. Placing these essays side by side encourages the asking of new questions about the forces that have shaped American politics over time. An unparalleled example of the new political history in action, this book will be vastly influential in the field. In addition to the editors, the contributors are Brian Balogh, Sven Beckert, Rebecca Edwards, Joanne B. Freeman, Richard R. John, Ira Katznelson, James T. Kloppenberg, Matthew D. Lassiter, Thomas J. Sugrue, Michael Vorenberg, and Michael Willrich.

"Zelizer takes the full measure of the entire story [of Johnson's liberal agenda] in all its epic sweep. Before Johnson, Kennedy tried and failed to achieve many of these advances. Our practiced understanding is that this was an unprecedented liberal hour in America, a moment, after Kennedy's death, when the seas parted and Johnson could simply stroll through to victory. As Zelizer shows, this view is off-base: in many respects America was even more conservative than it seems now, and Johnson's legislative program faced bitter resistance" --Amazon.com.