Choice Reviews Online
 
Quick Search
 

ADVERTISER INDEX

FORTHCOMING TITLES LISTS
 
RECENT ISSUES
 
 
OUTSTANDING ACADEMIC TITLES
 

About Choice
CRO System Requirements
Top Tips for Using CRO
FAQ
Help
Information for Advertisers
Information for Publishers
Information for Subscribers
Information for Reviewers
Contact Us
 
FULL TEXT REVIEW
47-7139JK22612009-20971 CIP
Social & Behavioral Sciences \ Political Science \ U.S. Politics
Galvin, Daniel J.  Presidential party building: Dwight D. Eisenhower to George W. Bush.  Princeton, 2010.  338p index afp; ISBN 9780691136929, $65.00; ISBN 9780691136936 pbk, $27.95. Reviewed in 2010aug CHOICE.
Conventional wisdom holds that US presidents make the most of the office by either focusing on reelection or building a personal legacy that historians will remember. Presidents are expected to be less interested in building their political parties. Galvin (Northwestern Univ.) successfully challenges this simplification by demonstrating that Republican presidents since the New Deal consistently and energetically sought to strengthen the organizational capacity of the GOP, using the power of the office to further the goal of making the Republicans the new majority party. Democratic presidents, in contrast, have tended to use the national party apparatus as an extension of their personal political operations. This formation is most influenced by the competitive standing of the party rather than ideology. Digging deep into archives, Galvin documents the work of presidents and White House staff in carrying out party functions and shows how the cumulative party-building efforts of Republican presidents since Eisenhower transformed the GOP into a serious rival of the Democrats. Galvin's six dimensions of party development sometimes interfere with the compelling narrative. The book is an important contribution to the literature on the presidency and offers a fine research design model for qualitative social scientists. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers, upper-division undergraduate students, and above. -- R. M. Flanagan, CUNY College of Staten Island
More titles from Princeton
More titles by Galvin, Daniel J
 
Username:
 
Password:


See news about ALA's recent Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

October 2010

Essay: A History of Healing Therapies: Western, Eastern, and Alternative Approaches

Forthcoming Political Science & Economics Publications, 2010-2011


USER FEEDBACK
Copyright © 2010 American Library Association. CHOICE is a publishing unit of the Association of College & Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association.