Crisis and Command: A History of Executive Power from George Washington to George W. Bush Read Online Free
Author: John Yoo
Tags: United States, General, History, Biography & Autobiography, USA, Political Science, etc, Law, History of the Americas, United States - General, Presidents & Heads of State, Executive Branch, Government, Government - Executive Branch, Presidents, History - U.S., History: American, Constitution: government & the state, Constitutions, Constitutional & administrative law, Constitutional history, Constitutional history - United States, Constitutional, Executive Power, Political History, U.S. President, Executive power - United States - History, United States History (Specific Aspects), Legal status, National Law: Professional, Presidents - Legal status, etc - United States - History, laws
their constitutional powers knowing that it could lead to their political ruin or damage their historical reputations. But as we have seen, presidential power moves in cycles, change is no doubt certain, and it is change that can bring out greatness in our Presidents.
THIS BOOK GREW out of an effort to reconcile personal experience with received teachings. As an immigrant from South Korea, I have long been conscious of President Harry Truman's use of his authority as Commander-in-Chief at the start of the 1950 Korean War. Were it not for his decision to send American troops immediately, I very well might have grown up in a real totalitarian dictatorship. The difference is strikingly illustrated by the satellite imagery of the thirty-eighth parallel at night, with the brilliantly lit cities of the South contrasting with the utter darkness of the North. Presidents throughout the Cold War pursued similar policies regardless of party, often risking their standing in the opinion polls steadily to contain the Soviet Union and to protect the Free World.
The benefits of vigorous presidential action did not accord with the conventional wisdom toward executive authority, at least as revealed at Harvard College in the 1980s or Yale Law School in the 1990s. In the classrooms of those days, it was de rigueur to criticize the Reagan and Bush administrations' exercise of their constitutional powers, arguments that became muted once President Clinton assumed office, but returned with a vengeance during the second Bush administration. For me, it was at least worth considering whether the modern Presidency had achieved better outcomes for the nation, and for the liberty of millions around the world. As I studied and thought more, it seemed to me that the Presidency of the twenty-first century falls well within the boundaries of its constitutional origins and political history and tradition than scholars commonly believe today. This book is the product of my thinking about the Presidency first sparked in my student days.
I have accumulated a number of intellectual debts in the course of writing this book. My greatest thanks go to colleagues and friends who have read and commented on some or all of the manuscript: Carlos Bea, Joseph Bessette, Jesse Choper, Robert Delahunty, Dan Farber, Mark Killenbeck, Sai Prakash, Dean Reuter, Ron Rotunda, Gary Schmitt, and Michael Uhlmann. I have also benefited from the excellent research assistance of Janet Galeria, Peter Gerra, Ben Peterson, Andrew Verriere, and Claire Yan. Dean Christopher Edley, Jr., provided financial support for summer research, and Dean John Eastman invited me to Chapman Law School for a semester when I put the finishing touches on the manuscript. Lynn Chu has been not just an agent, but a great editor and collaborator as well. Don Fehr of Kaplan has been a source of sage advice and editorial judgment.
I have been blessed to have the support of my wonderful parents, Drs. John Hyun Soo Yoo and Sook Hee Lee Yoo, and brother, Dr. Christopher J. Yoo. It has been my equally good fortune to spend the years since college with my wife, Elsa Arnett. She has combined the smarts, support, and strength for which every writer (or husband) could wish. This book, once again, is dedicated to her.
PRIMARY SOURCES
Abraham Lincoln Speeches and Writings, 1832-1858 (Don E. Fehrenbacher ed., 1989).
Annals of Congress (Joseph Gales ed., 1789).
Blackstone, William. Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765-69).
Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents: 1789-1897 (James Richardson ed., 1900).
The Complete Anas of Thomas Jefferson (Franklin B. Sawvel ed., 1903).
The Complete Anti-Federalist (Herbert J. Storing ed., 1981).
Documentary History of the First Federal Congress, 1789-1791 (Charlene Bangs Bickford et al. eds., 2004).
Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution (John P. Kaminski & Gaspare J. Saladino eds., 1986)
The Federal and State Constitutions, Colonial Charters,
THIS BOOK GREW out of an effort to reconcile personal experience with received teachings. As an immigrant from South Korea, I have long been conscious of President Harry Truman's use of his authority as Commander-in-Chief at the start of the 1950 Korean War. Were it not for his decision to send American troops immediately, I very well might have grown up in a real totalitarian dictatorship. The difference is strikingly illustrated by the satellite imagery of the thirty-eighth parallel at night, with the brilliantly lit cities of the South contrasting with the utter darkness of the North. Presidents throughout the Cold War pursued similar policies regardless of party, often risking their standing in the opinion polls steadily to contain the Soviet Union and to protect the Free World.
The benefits of vigorous presidential action did not accord with the conventional wisdom toward executive authority, at least as revealed at Harvard College in the 1980s or Yale Law School in the 1990s. In the classrooms of those days, it was de rigueur to criticize the Reagan and Bush administrations' exercise of their constitutional powers, arguments that became muted once President Clinton assumed office, but returned with a vengeance during the second Bush administration. For me, it was at least worth considering whether the modern Presidency had achieved better outcomes for the nation, and for the liberty of millions around the world. As I studied and thought more, it seemed to me that the Presidency of the twenty-first century falls well within the boundaries of its constitutional origins and political history and tradition than scholars commonly believe today. This book is the product of my thinking about the Presidency first sparked in my student days.
I have accumulated a number of intellectual debts in the course of writing this book. My greatest thanks go to colleagues and friends who have read and commented on some or all of the manuscript: Carlos Bea, Joseph Bessette, Jesse Choper, Robert Delahunty, Dan Farber, Mark Killenbeck, Sai Prakash, Dean Reuter, Ron Rotunda, Gary Schmitt, and Michael Uhlmann. I have also benefited from the excellent research assistance of Janet Galeria, Peter Gerra, Ben Peterson, Andrew Verriere, and Claire Yan. Dean Christopher Edley, Jr., provided financial support for summer research, and Dean John Eastman invited me to Chapman Law School for a semester when I put the finishing touches on the manuscript. Lynn Chu has been not just an agent, but a great editor and collaborator as well. Don Fehr of Kaplan has been a source of sage advice and editorial judgment.
I have been blessed to have the support of my wonderful parents, Drs. John Hyun Soo Yoo and Sook Hee Lee Yoo, and brother, Dr. Christopher J. Yoo. It has been my equally good fortune to spend the years since college with my wife, Elsa Arnett. She has combined the smarts, support, and strength for which every writer (or husband) could wish. This book, once again, is dedicated to her.
PRIMARY SOURCES
Abraham Lincoln Speeches and Writings, 1832-1858 (Don E. Fehrenbacher ed., 1989).
Annals of Congress (Joseph Gales ed., 1789).
Blackstone, William. Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765-69).
Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents: 1789-1897 (James Richardson ed., 1900).
The Complete Anas of Thomas Jefferson (Franklin B. Sawvel ed., 1903).
The Complete Anti-Federalist (Herbert J. Storing ed., 1981).
Documentary History of the First Federal Congress, 1789-1791 (Charlene Bangs Bickford et al. eds., 2004).
Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution (John P. Kaminski & Gaspare J. Saladino eds., 1986)
The Federal and State Constitutions, Colonial Charters,
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