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    Presidential Misconduct: From George Washington to Today
    Presidential Misconduct: From George Washington to Today
    Presidential Misconduct: From George Washington to Today
    Audiobook18 hours

    Presidential Misconduct: From George Washington to Today

    Written by James M. Banner, Jr.

    Narrated by Mike Chamberlain

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    In May 1974, as President Richard Nixon faced impeachment following the Watergate scandal, the House Judiciary Committee commissioned a historical account of the misdeeds of past presidents. The account, compiled by leading presidential historians of the day, reached back to George Washington's administration and was designed to provide a benchmark against which Nixon's misdeeds could be measured. What the report found was that, with the exception of William Henry Harrison, every American president has been accused of misconduct.

    Now, as another president and his subordinates face an array of charges on a wide range of legal and constitutional offenses, a group of presidential historians has come together under the leadership of James M. Banner, Jr.-one of the historians who contributed to the original report-to bring the 1974 account up to date through Barack Obama's presidency. Based on current scholarship, this new material covers such well-known episodes as Nixon's Watergate crisis, Reagan's Iran-Contra scandal, Clinton's impeachment, and George W. Bush's connection to the exposure of intelligence secrets. But oft-forgotten events also take the stage: Carter's troubles with advisor Bert Lance, Reagan's savings and loan crisis, George H. W. Bush's nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, and Obama's Solyndra loan controversy.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateMar 17, 2020
    ISBN9781541417236
    Author

    James M. Banner, Jr.

    A Guggenheim Award–winning professor of history, James M. Banner, Jr., was on the Princeton faculty in 1974 when he contributed to the presidential misconduct report and is now an independent historian in Washington, DC. He was a co-founder of the History News Service, a moving spirit behind the National History Center, and the author of many books, including Being a Historian, and the editor of Presidential Misconduct: From George Washington to Today (The New Press).

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    • 4/5
      This book is boring, but it is still well worth reading, particularly for those seriously interested in U.S. history and politics. First, why boring: I bought this book with great anticipation, looking for a guided tour through the scandals of our presidents. It does indeed provide a tour, and there were more scandals than I imagined. The only president whose administration did not provide at least a dollop of scandal was that of William Henry Harrison, who served for one month and then died. Even George Washington's administration was accused of major malfeasance in its later years. The trouble is that the tour isn't really guided. The historians who drew up the studies of each administration have not tied scandals into the tenor of the times, or made much an evaluation of the culpability and/or character of each president. This makes for dull reading, and I contemplated jumping ship about 100 pages in.BUT -- why well worth reading? First, the sheer scope of accusation and counter-accusation shows just how long partisanship has gripped US politics. That's not to deny a great deal of malfeasance by some presidents and by the associates of many presidents. But most adminstrations have been accused, and many investigated, for things that now seem less than impressive. Second, the process of accusation and counter-accusation, taken together, illustrates the ongoing push-pull between the legislative and executive branches. Third, some of the book is really interesting. I had no idea that the Theodore Roosevelt and Harry Truman administrations were so scandal-plagued, nor that Iran Contra was as serious as it looks in retrospects. Finally, all that past creates a context in which to evaluate the current president. Although I think that the totality of his actions adds up to very major crimes and misdemeanors, I am afraid that the specific actions for which he was impeached look less impressive in an historical context.