Reassessing the Presidency

Reassessing the Presidency: The Rise of the Executive State and the Decline of Freedom
Author(s)	John V. Denson, others
Country	United States
Subject(s)	Politics
Genre(s)	Non-fiction
Publisher	Ludwig von Mises Institute
Publication date	2001
Media type	Print, Digital
Pages	791 p. (incl. index)
ISBN	0-945466-29-3

Reassessing the Presidency: The Rise of the Executive State and the Decline of Freedom is a 2001 collection of essays discussing various aspects of the office of the Presidency in the United States, and several historical US presidents. It was edited by John V. Denson, who also contributed two essays.

Among the contributors are Thomas J. DiLorenzo, Lowell Gallaway, David Gordon, Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Jeffrey Rogers Hummel, Yuri N. Maltsev, Joseph T. Salerno, Richard Vedder, and Thomas E. Woods, Jr..

Contents

#	Title	Author	Description
	Introduction	John V. Denson
1	Rating Presidential Performance	Richard Vedder, Lowell Gallaway
2	George Washington: An Image and Its Influence	David Gordon	Gordon addresses two ways that Washington harmed Americans during his presidency – his support for the US Constitution and the National Bank – and one positive impact: his non-interventionism, as expressed in his Farewell Address.
3	Thomas Jefferson: Classical-Liberal Statesman of the Old Republic	H. Arthur Scott Trask
4	Supreme Court as Accomplice: Judicial Backing for a Despotic Presidency	Marshall L. DeRosa
5	The Electoral College as a Restraint on American Democracy: Its Evolution from Washington to Jackson	Randall G. Holcombe	Holcombe traces the Electoral College from its origin as a method of ensuring rule by a political elite to its transformation by state voting laws and especially the election of Andrew Jackson.
6	Martin Van Buren: The American Gladstone	Jeffrey Rogers Hummel
7	Abraham Lincoln and the Triumph of Mercantilism	Thomas J. DiLorenzo
8	Lincoln and the First Shot: A Study of Deceit and Deception	John V. Denson
9	President Andrew Johnson: Tribune of States' Rights	H. Arthur Scott Trask, Carey Roberts
10	William McKinley: Architect of the American Empire	Joseph R. Stromberg
11	Theodore Roosevelt and the Modern Presidency	Thomas E. Woods, Jr.	Woods focuses on Roosevelt's belligerent personality, his imperialist foreign policy (especially with respect to the Philippines), his pushing for new regulatory legislation, and his antitrust battle against the railroads.
12	The Use and Abuse of Antitrust From Cleveland to Clinton: Causes and Consequences	George Bittlingmayer
13	From Opponent of Empire to Career Opportunist: William Howard Taft as Conservative Bureaucrat in the Evolution of the American Imperial System	William Marina
14	Woodrow Wilson's Revolution Within the Form	Richard M. Gamble
15	Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal: From Economic Fascism to Pork-Barrel Politics	Thomas J. DiLorenzo
16	Roosevelt and the First Shot: A Study of Deceit and Deception	John V. Denson
17	Despotism Loves Company: The Story of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Josef Stalin	Yuri N. Maltsev, Barry Dean Simpson
18	Harry S. Truman: Advancing the Revolution	Ralph Raico
19	From Kennedy's "New Economics" to Nixon's "New Economic Policy": Monetary Inflation and the March of Economic Fascism	Joseph T. Salerno
20	The Managerial President	Paul Gottfried
21	The President as Social Engineer	Michael Levin
22	The Impossibility of Limited Government and the Prospects for a Second American Revolution	Hans-Hermann Hoppe	Hoppe argues that the US Constitution established tyranny, that the American experiment in limited government has failed and should be ended via localized secession, and that private insurance companies, not governments, are best suited for the production of security.
23	The American President: From Cincinnatus to Caesar	Clyde N. Wilson

Links

• Resources page at Mises.org
• Reassessing the Presidency Mises Institute Seminar, March 2004