David J. Barron

Harvard Book Store welcomes author DAVID J. BARRON—United States Circuit Judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and former S. William Green Professor of Public Law at Harvard Law School—for a discussion of his book, Waging War: The Clash Between Presidents and Congress, 1776 to ISIS.

About Waging War

A timely account of a raging debate: The history of the ongoing struggle between the presidents and Congress over who has the power to declare and wage war.

The Constitution states that it is Congress that declares war, but it is the presidents who have more often taken us to war and decided how to wage it. In Waging War, David J. Barron opens with an account of George Washington and the Continental Congress over Washington’s plan to burn New York City before the British invasion. Congress ordered him not to, and he obeyed. Barron takes us through all the wars that followed: 1812, the Mexican War, the Civil War, the Spanish-American war, World Wars One and Two, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and now, most spectacularly, the War on Terror. Congress has criticized George W. Bush for being too aggressive and Barack Obama for not being aggressive enough, but it avoids a vote on the matter. By recounting how our presidents have declared and waged wars, Barron shows that these executives have had to get their way without openly defying Congress.

Waging War shows us our country’s revered and colorful presidents at their most trying times—Washington, Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Johnson, both Bushes, and Obama. Their wars have made heroes of some and victims of others, but most have proved adept at getting their way over reluctant or hostile Congresses. The next president will face this challenge immediately—and the Constitution and its fragile system of checks and balances will once again be at the forefront of the national debate.

Praise

"[Barron] chronicles the centuries long push/pull between the executive and the legislative branches over the conduct of America's wars. . . . smoothly readable prose, with a sure grasp of the big picture . . . A first-rate history filled with revealing incidents and informed analysis." —Kirkus, starred review

"Barron surveys the fraught struggles between presidents and congresses over their war powers since before the creation of American constitutional government in 1787 and up through the Obama administration. . . . The book should be read widely by those responsible for the development and implementation of national policies. It’s a fine example of the use of history to illuminate current circumstances and to counter unsupportable claims and arguments about Congress and the president." —Publishers Weekly

"A brilliant book by one of our most brilliant young jurists, Waging War plumbs two hundred and forty years of history for answers to an urgent question about the future of the American democracy. Will presidents wage the wars of tomorrow within limits or without constraints? David J. Barron has written the definitive account of the value of constitutional government in the way the United States goes to war." —John Fabian Witt, author of Lincoln’s Code: The Laws of War in American History