San Antonio College Library

"American foreign policy often looks like a trail of man-made debris and disaster. Of course, the explanations for many poorly-made decisions are rather complex. In this brief and cogent analysis, Houghton shows us that understanding American foreign policy often comes down to recognizing the cognitive limitations of the decision-makers, which affects the foreign policy process. Then there is the nature of the decisions themselves. Quite a few decisions...

Presents the life and career of Ronald Reagan, the fortieth president of the United States who served two terms, discusses the decisions made during his presidency and the reasons behind them.

Contains essays by various scholars in which they examine the key decisions of President Lyndon B. Johnson, looking at Johnson's attempts to build the Great Society, his record on Civil Rights, his actions regarding the Vietnam War, and his decision in 1968 to withdraw from the presidential race.

Presidential historian Beschloss has brought us a saga about crucial times in America's history when a courageous president dramatically changed the future of the United States. Beschloss brings to life these flawed, complex men--and their wives, families, friends and foes, in an intimate, behind-the-scenes view of presidents coping with the supreme dilemmas of their lives. As he shows, none of these presidents was eager to incur ridicule, vilification...

Two professors of government analyze both political disasters and successes of recent decades to provide telling lessons on how to use history to improve decision-making. A dozen case studies are drawn in pungent detail both from the record and from backstage information gained from top officials. Sadly, the authors can safely assume a vast ignorance of history in Washington and the media. They make painfully clear that attention to particulars matters,...

This study of Theodore Roosevelt, politician, owes much to the conception of an American political tradition and to the people and events that gave it life, to political idea and historical reality. It proposes to distill from Roosevelt's mind and spirit, as well as from his words and his actions, an understanding of why any account of that tradition would suffer grievously, perhaps fatally, from a failure to give TR his due. The author analyzes TR's...

The Republican party is embroiled in a heated and high-stakes battle between its far-right and moderate wings, with conservatives declaring open warfare on moderates. A lifelong and loyal Republican and a leader of the party's moderate wing, Whitman is a passionate believer in the power of the "productive middle" in politics. In this book she offers an insider's argument against the hijacking of her party by zealous "social fundamentalists." She argues...