Presidents Creating the Presidency: Deeds Done in Words - Softcover

Campbell, Karlyn Kohrs; Jamieson, Kathleen Hall

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226092216 ISBN 13: 9780226092218

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2008

Synopsis

Arguing that “the presidency” is not defined by the Constitution—which doesn’t use the term—but by what presidents say and how they say it, Deeds Done in Words has been the definitive book on presidential rhetoric for more than a decade. In Presidents Creating the Presidency, Karlyn Kohrs Campbell and Kathleen Hall Jamieson expand and recast their classic work for the YouTube era, revealing how our media-saturated age has transformed the ever-evolving rhetorical strategies that presidents use to increase and sustain the executive branch’s powers.

Identifying the primary genres of presidential oratory, Campbell and Jamieson add new analyses of signing statements and national eulogies to their explorations of inaugural addresses, veto messages, and war rhetoric, among other types. They explain that in some of these genres, such as farewell addresses intended to leave an individual legacy, the president acts alone; in others, such as State of the Union speeches that urge a legislative agenda, the executive solicits reaction from the other branches. Updating their coverage through the current administration, the authors contend that many of these rhetorical acts extend over time: George W. Bush’s post-September 11 statements, for example, culminated in a speech at the National Cathedral and became a touchstone for his subsequent address to Congress.

For two centuries, presidential discourse has both succeeded brilliantly and failed miserably at satisfying the demands of audience, occasion, and institution—and in the process, it has increased and depleted political capital by enhancing presidential authority or ceding it to the other branches. Illuminating the reasons behind each outcome, Campbell and Jamieson draw an authoritative picture of how presidents have used rhetoric to shape the presidency—and how they continue to re-create it.

About this title

About the Author:

Karlyn Kohrs Campbell is professor of communication studies at the University of Minnesota. Kathleen Hall Jamieson is the Elizabeth Ware Packard Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication and Walter and Leonore Annenberg Director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.
 

From Publishers Weekly:

Campbell and Jamieson argue that the powers and parameters of the presidency are negotiated through rhetoric. The institutions of our government constitute an experiment in rhetorical adaptation in which the initiatives of any one branch can be modified and refined by the reactions of the others, write the authors, providing fascinating examples of how each president has expanded or contracted the powers of the executive branch. In this updated version, the authors have made significant structural changes to their 1990 book, adding sections on national eulogies, Clinton and Bush's oratory, and de facto item vetoes (presidential statements that accompany and modify legislation passed by Congress). The authors tie together overarching themes and functions of various genres of presidential rhetoric (inaugurations, presidential pardons, state of the union addresses), dwelling on specific speeches (Lincoln's first inaugural, Bush's national eulogy after 9/11) with depth and clarity. While the passages on inaugurals and the state of the union are more descriptive than insightful, the chapter on veto messages is original and offers fresh perceptions on a newer political trend. A comprehensively researched and stimulating read in an election year. (May)
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About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0226092216
• ISBN 13: 9780226092218
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 443