Jeremi Suri

Harvard Book Store welcomes University of Texas professor JEREMI SURI for a discussion of his latest book, The Impossible Presidency: The Rise and Fall of America's Highest Office.

About The Impossible Presidency

In this bold new history of the American presidency, celebrated historian Jeremi Suri argues that the successful presidents of the past created unrealistic expectations for every president since JFK, with enormously problematic implications for American politics. Suri charts the rise and fall of the American presidency, from the limited role envisaged by the Founding Fathers to its current status as the most powerful job in the world. He argues that the presidency is a victim of its own success—the vastness of the job makes it almost impossible to fulfill the expectations placed upon it. As managers of the world's largest economy and military, contemporary presidents must react to a truly globalized world in a twenty-four-hour news cycle. There is little room left for bold vision.

Suri traces America's disenchantment with our recent presidents to the inevitable mismatch between presidential promises and the structural limitations of the office. A masterful reassessment of presidential history, this book is essential reading for anyone trying to understand America's fraught political climate.

Praise

"An illuminating look at the highest office in the land and its occupants. . . Lively and well-grounded, offering good measures by which to judge our best and worst presidents and their methods of governing." ―Kirkus Reviews

"Why do our elected monarchs continue both to inspire and disappoint us? Jeremi Suri answers that question with a brilliant account of what America's most important presidents accomplished and why they inevitably failed to live up to their promise. Written with grace and authority, this book is one of the wisest histories of U.S. politics I have read in years." ―Michael Kazin, author of War Against War: The American Fight for Peace, 1914-1918