The American Presidency examines the constitutional precepts of the executive office and the social, economic, political, and international factors that have shaped it. In this updated sixth edition, Milkis and Nelson add new scholarship to every chapter, address the end of George W. Bush’s tenure, and—in a new chapter—explore President Obama’s first two years in office.
Treating each presidency succinctly, the authors focus on how individual presidents have shaped the executive office to reveal the developmental arc of the modern presidency. By emphasizing patterns of presidential conduct, this award-winning book offers perspective and insight on the expansion of presidential power over the years.

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1.  The Constitutional Convention
2.  Creating the Presidency
3.  Implementing the Constitutional Presidency: George Washington and John Adams
4.  The Triumph of Jeffersonianism
5.  The Age of Jackson
6.  The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln
7.  The Reaction against Presidential Power: Andrew Johnson to William McKinley
8.  Progressive Politics and Executive Power: The Presidencies of Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson
9. The Triumph of Conservative Republicanism
10. The Consolidation of the Modern Presidency: Franklin D. Roosevelt to Dwight D. Eisenhower
11. Personalizing the Presidency: John F. Kennedy to Jimmy Carter
12. A Restoration of Presidential Power? Ronald Reagan and George Bush
13. Bill Clinton and the Politics of Prosperity
14. George W. Bush and Unilateral Presidential Power
15. Barack Obama and the Great Recession
16. The Vice Presidency

Sidney M. Milkis is the James Hart Professor of Politics and senior scholar at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. His books include The President and the Parties (1993), The Politics of Regulatory Change, 2d edition (1996), Political Parties and Constitutional Government (1999), Presidential Greatness (2000), and The New Deal and the Triumph of Liberalism (2002). His articles have appeared in Political Science Quarterly, Studies in American Political Development, The Journal of Policy History, and several edited volumes.

Michael Nelson is the Fulmer Professor of Political Science at Rhodes College and a Senior Fellow of the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. His recent books include: The Presidency and the Political System, 9th Ed., The Evolving Presidency: Landmark Documents, 1787-2010, 4th Ed., and The Elections of 2008. More than fifty of his articles have been reprinted in anthologies of political science, history, music, and English composition, including articles on subjects as varied as baseball, C. S. Lewis, and Frank Sinatra.