| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 90.3

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 90.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

By Order of the President: The Use and Abuse of Executive Direct Action. By Phillip J. Cooper. (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2002. xiv, 301 pp. Cloth, $39.95, ISBN 0-7006-1179-7. Paper, $16.95, ISBN 0-7006-1180-0.)

It is fortunate when a scholar has the opportunity to illuminate a topic that is both timely and, for the most part, not widely appreciated. Such is the case with Professor Phillip J. Cooper's study of what he aptly calls the presidential "power tools" (p. 14), those devices that enable a president to take "direct action" absent specific legislative or judicial authorization. These include the executive order, the presidential memorandum, presidential proclamations, national security directives, and the presidential signing statement. Cooper argues that, while these devices have become an important element of national executive governance, "they have been used in increasingly problematic ways that present constitutional, institutional, procedural, and policy difficulties" (p. 4).

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