Dana D. Nelson argues that it is the office of the presidency itself that endangers the great American experiment. This urgent book, with new analysis of President Barack Obama's first months in office, reveals the futility of placing all of our hopes for the future in the American president and encourages citizens to create a politics of deliberation, action, and agency.
Dana D. Nelson is a professor of English and American studies at Vanderbilt University, where she teaches classes in U.S. literature and history, and courses that connect activism, volunteering, and citizenship. She has published numerous books and essays on U.S. literature and the history of citizenship and democratic culture. She lives in Nashville and is involved locally with a program that helps incarcerated women develop strong decision-making skills and with an innovative activist group fighting homelessness in the area.
Introduction:The People v. Presidentialism,1. How the President Becomes a Superhero, 2. Voting and the Incredibly Shrinking Citizen, 3. Presidential War Powers and Politics as War, 4. Going Corporate with the Unitary Executive Conclusion: Reclaiming Democratic Power for Ourselves, Acknowledgments, Bibliography, Index
![Bad for Democracy: How the Presidency Undermines the Power of the People [Paperback]](/itemImage/2/2/0/4/2_5173804.jpg "Bad for Democracy: How the Presidency Undermines the Power of the People [Paperback]")