Industry Reviews
"Well written and thoroughly thought out, a good teaching text."--Donald Crumbley, Sr., Columbia College
"Excellent book... Milkis has accomplished a superb marriage of political history and social science explanation, and his book offers a fundamental explanation of the institutional politics of the modern presidency."--American Politics
"Well written and interesting, rich historical detail."--Henry Sirgo, McNeese State University
"The author's presentation of presidential politics in the U.S. is both balanced and insightful."--Robert Cropf, St. Louis University
"A useful, historical treatment of where the parties have been and where--if anywhere--they're going in the fractioned American political 'system'!"--Roger Hamburg, Indiana University at South Bend
"Professor Milkis obviously has done an enormous amount of research. This text would be good to use for upper level or graduate students."--David Robinson, University of Houston
"For anyone interested in how Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal shaped the American party system, this will be required reading. Milkis argues, convincingly, that Roosevelt made an eyes-open choice to build an administrative presidency rather than rule through party government."--David Mayhew, Yale University
"Milkis raises deeply disturbing questions about the implications of 'liberating the presidency' for promoting the degradation of American democracy....A book which deserves to be read. More than that, it should be given careful attention."--Walter Dean Burnham, University of Texas at Austin
"Shows how the growth of presidential power in the twentieth century created a politics of administration that has supplanted a vigorous party politics. This book will prove fascinating and indispensable reading for all who are concerned about the vitality of democratic institutions in the United States."--Margaret Weir, The Brookings Institution
"A masterful discussion of the origin and design of the administrative state and its consequences for the republic. No one sees the causes of our discontents more clearly than Milkis, and no one has a better idea of what it will take to revive democracy."--Wilson Carey McWilliams, Rutgers University
"A brilliant new interpretation of the central political events of our century....A keen assessment and a profound critique of the New Deal, indispensable for anyone who wishes to understand American politics in a long view or up close."--Harvey C. Mansfield, Harvard University
"A magnificent work, one that manages to make sense of virtually all of 20th-century American politics....The closest thing to a page-turner one is likely to find in political science!"--Michael Nelson, Rhodes College
"In the most encompassing critique of the modern presidency yet, Milkis takes aim at a philosophy of governing, a partisan project, and a fully elaborated political regime."--Stephen Skowronek, Yale University
"Skillfully uniting history with political science, Milkis is able to show just how much American liberalism has to answer for."--Martha Derthick, University of Virginia
"Excellent and important. It succeeds in connecting two areas of national politics, presidential policymaking and the party apparatus, that are usually, to their detriment, kept separate."--Aaron Wildavsky, University of California, Berkeley
"This book is even broader in scope, and greater in importance, than its' sweeping title indicates. Sidney M. Milkis, a historically oriented political scientist, has produced a work that goes beyond elections, party systems, and presidential administrations to deliver an interpretation of the structure of politics and the changing nature of state since the 1930's. This is a very important book."--ALonzo L. Hamby, Ohio University
"The President and the Parties is an engaging, historically rich read for serious-minded students. Its arresting argument about the "tension between the administrative state and democratic citizenship" breaks with most other treatments of the presidency, the New Deal, or realignments."--Dennis M. Anderson, Bowling Green State University
