Mr. President

March 5, 2012
In a time when many find themselves questioning the efficacy of the presidency (seemingly regardless of party affiliation), the eligibility of future candidates, and the efficiency of the election process, a look back at the origins of the highest office in the U.S. is particularly timely. In this engaging narrative, Raphael (Founders: The People Who Brought You a Nation) elucidates the goings-on of the Federal Convention; the Continental Congresses and the various committees and debates that stemmed from them; and the myriad questions (some of which we still ask today) that shaped the American presidency: "Who would elect a chief executive? How long would he serve? What authority would he exercise? Who could check his power?" Peopled by such well-known figures as James Madison and George Washington, Raphael's latest also includes notable characters like the brilliant, "flamboyant, peg-legged orator" Gouverneur Morris, and the man responsible for the initial motion that the presidency consist of a single individual, James Wilson. Meticulously detailed and thoroughly researchedâRaphael cites the papers of many icons of the nation's birth, such as Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin Franklinâthis is a valuable read for Democrats and Republicans, as well as historians and those interested in contemporary American politics.

February 15, 2012
Renowned historian Raphael (Revolutionary Founders: Rebels, Radicals, and Reformers in the Making of the Nation, 2011, etc.) delivers an authoritative biography of the Constitutional Convention and the herculean task faced by the representatives. The author paints a picture of heroes--Edmund Randolph, George Mason, James Wilson and James Madison, among others--noting that the founders developed a government presupposing that George Washington would be the first chief executive. They believed Washington would set a nonpartisan tone and establish precedents for the office. Knowing the first man at the helm would be a good one, they then had to imagine successors who might not be quite as upright and accommodating. In order to show how their views evolved as they toiled, Raphael explores the founders' writings in chronological order. The office developed slowly and with fervent discussions, and many wished the executive branch to be a committee out of fear of another monarchy like the one they had just rejected. They struggled with questions of popular or legislative election, term of office and re-eligibility before they ever began to worry about the powers the executive would wield. The question of direct election by the people was rejected out of hand, and selection by the senate would inextricably tie the executive to it. The electoral system involved the legislators while successively filtering the people's wishes. The fear of a strong executive played equally against the notion that the aristocratic senate would overpower the government as they debated the division of powers. Remarkably, by the fall of 1787 two branches of the government were up and running, only awaiting the appointment of judges to complete the third. Raphael's exceptional history of the beginning years of the United States should be required reading, especially in an election year.

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April 1, 2012

This is a historical examination of the framing of the U.S. Constitution in relation to debates over the role of the chief executive. Discussing the Constitution's roots, Raphael (Founders: The People Who Brought You a Nation) notes that even during disputes such as the Stamp Act of 1765, colonists were respectful to the king, blaming their grievances on his colonial representatives. Not until Thomas Paine's diatribes against George III's abuses in Common Sense (1776) did public opinion change, paving the way for revolution. But fear of a powerful chief executive led to the Articles of Confederation placing most governmental power in the hands of the states. By 1787, delegates at the Constitutional Convention realized that the existing form of government was too weak, but resistance to a strong central government persisted. Raphael draws primarily from James Madison's Notes on the Constitutional Convention and pays attention to related issues such as elections and the power of Congress. His clear style and entertaining stories make a complex subject understandable. VERDICT General readers, including high school students, interested in colonial and constitutional history will enjoy this book. An optional purchase for advanced readers on the subject.--Becky Kennedy, Atlanta-Fulton P.L.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2012
Author of several populist histories about the American Revolution (e.g., Founders, 2009), Raphael here delves into the Constitutional Convention of 1787 to elucidate compromises that created the presidency. Saving readers the tedium of digesting Madison's secret journal of the proceedings, Raphael converts it and supplementary sources into a dramatized narrative that emphasizes how differently the office could have been framed. Setting up speakers advocating schemes of the presidency's term, mode of election, and scope of powers, Raphael elevates the importance of one member of the convention in particular, Gouverneur Morris, whose influence he credits with vesting appointment and treaty-making powers in the president. How those and other attributes of the executive would function, however, is the ensuing story Raphael tells through the incumbencies of Washington, Adams, and Jefferson. Events in their terms will remind readers that some presidential powers, such as executive privilege and the acquisition of territory, derive from precedents set by the first three presidents rather than from explicit constitutional clauses. Far from dryly legalistic, Raphael's presentation, with its context of the partisan 1790s, ensures the avid interest of early-republic buffs.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)