Patriot Presidents

The esteemed American historian William E. Leuchtenburg invites readers to revisit the years at the birth of the republic when Americans could take pride in leaders of ideals, high competence, and integrity who headed their government--chief executives who, though not unflawed, had an abiding commitment to the success of the vulnerable government that had emerged from the revolutionary cause to which they had devoted themselves.

William E. Leuchtenburg is William Rand Kenan Jr. Professor Emeritus of History at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Over the course of six decades, he taught at Columbia University, UNC-Chapel Hill, and, as a visiting professor, at Harvard, Cornell, Duke, William and Mary, and other American universities, as well as at Oxford, where he held the Harmsworth chair. He served as presidential elections analyst for NBC and as presidential inauguration consultant for CBS, PBS, and C-SPAN. Elected president of the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, and the Society of American Historians, he is the first recipient of the Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. Award for Distinguished Writing in American History of Enduring Public Significance. He is the author of fifteen books, including The American President; The Perils of Prosperity, 1914-32; Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1932-1940; In the Shadow of FDR; The White House Looks South;
and The FDR Years.

- Preface
- 1. The Constitutional Convention of 1787: Framing the Presidency
- 2. George Washington: Launching the Presidency
- 3. John Adams: Preserving the Republic in Wartime
- 4. Thomas Jefferson: Limiting the Government while Creating an Empire
- 5. James Madison: Leading the Nation through the Perilous War of 1812
- 6. James Monroe: Enunciating a Doctrine for the Ages
- 7. John Quincy Adams: Advocating Activist Government
- Epilogue
- Acknowledgments
- Selected Bibliography
- Index