Reassessing the Presidency; The Rise of the Executive State and the Decline of Freedom

Denson, John V. (Editor)

ISBN 10: 0945466293 / ISBN 13: 9780945466291

Published by MISES Institute, Auburn, AL, 2001

About this Item

xxxv, [1], 791, [5] pages. Footnotes. Appendix A and B. Index. Minor spine wear. DJ has some wear, soiling, tears, sticker residue and chips. Index prepared by Marilyn Tenney. John V. Denson is Distinguished Scholar in History and Law at the Mises Institute. He is a practicing attorney and the editor of two books, The Costs of War and Reassessing the Presidency, and the author of A Century of War: Lincoln, Wilson and Roosevelt. The Ludwig von Mises Institute for Austrian Economics, is a tax-exempt educative organization located in Auburn, Alabama. It is named after Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973). The Mises Institute was founded in 1982 by Lew Rockwell, Burton Blumert, and Murray Rothbard, following a split with the Cato Institute. Additional backing for the Institute came from Margit von Mises, Henry Hazlitt, Lawrence Fertig, and Nobel Laureate Friedrich Hayek. The Institute promotes libertarian, paleolibertarian and anarcho-capitalist political theories and praxeology. The main reason for this book is to express various viewpoints in the long tradition of classical liberalism which are not contained in any other books on the presidency. The viewpoints expressed in this volume are very different from the perspectives of most of the historians. In every published poll taken of selected groups of professional historians since 1948, Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt have been rated as two of the "greatest." This book rates them as the two "worst." The Founders intended for the Congress, composed of both the House and Senate, to be the dominant branch of the federal government, which was then very limited in scope and power. Today the executive has become the dominant branch of government, to the point that it is the main threat to the liberty and freedom of American citizens. In twenty-two essays, this volume covers both the domestic and foreign policy of major, and many minor, presidents from the founding through the present day.

Seller Inventory # 76801

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Reassessing the Presidency; The Rise of the Executive State and the Decline of Freedom
• Publisher: MISES Institute, Auburn, AL
• Publication Date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0945466293
• ISBN 13: 9780945466291
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: Presumed First Edition, First printing.
• Condition: Very good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Woodrow Wilson
  • Theodore Roosevelt
  • Franklin Roosevelt

About this title

Synopsis

This remarkable volume is the first full-scale revision of the official history of the U.S. executive state. It traces the progression of power exercised by American presidents from the early American Republican up to the eventual reality of the power-hungry Caesars which later appear as president in American history. Contributors examine the usual judgments of the historical profession to show the ugly side of supposed presidential greatness.

The mission inherent in this undertaking is to determine how the presidency degenerated into the office of American Caesar. Did the character of the man who held the office corrupt it, or did the power of the office, as it evolved, corrupt the man? Or was it a combination of the two? Was there too much latent power in the original creation of the office as the Anti-Federalists claimed? Or was the power externally created and added to the position by corrupt or misguided men?

Contributors include George Bittlingmayer, John V. Denson, Marshall L. DeRosa, Thomas J. DiLorenzo, Lowell Gallaway, Richard M. Gamble, David Gordon, Paul Gottfried, Randall G. Holcombe, Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Jeffrey Rogers Hummel, Michael Levin, Yuri N. Maltsev, William Marina, Joseph Salerno, Barry Simpson, Joseph Stromberg, H. Arthur Scott Trask, Richard Vedder, and Clyde Wilson.