Review

General Books

This is a new entry in the Anvil Series of supplementary textbooks. Under the general editorship of Hans Trefousse, the Anvil books combine both narrative and documents at a level of detail and sophistication most suited for upper-level undergraduates. As the name suggests, Presidential Power from the New Deal to the New Right surveys presidential politics and administration policies from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan. A distinguished historian who has written important books on Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Richard M. Nixon, Parmet is beyond question eminently qualified to tackle the assignment. Roughly two-thirds of the narrative covers the Roosevelt, Truman, and Eisenhower presidencies. Parmet's full chapter on Eisenhower seems a bit much in such a slim volume, especially since Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson together rate only one chapter. The New Frontier and the Great Society are largely ignored. Cuba and Vietnam, respectively, dominate Parmet's discussion of the Kennedy and Johnson presidencies. Post-New Deal domestic policy generally receives little attention. Eisenhower fares well at Parmet's hands, largely it seems on matters of style and tone. One suspects Parmet likes Ike because the old soldier's avuncular public persona has worn well when compared to the toxic partisanship that has surrounded more recent, and more controversial, presidents.	1
Although Parmet limits himself for the most part to a straightforward presentation of the basic facts, his discussions of Jimmy Carter and Reagan are more interpretive. Parmet clearly has a low opinion of Carter's judgment and political skills. Yet Parmet's Carter seems beset by a range of problems broader and more seemingly intractable than those faced by any president since Roosevelt. As "a pious stranger from the provinces," (p.136), Carter, Parmet concedes, was undermined by a national media and a Washington establishment that saw the former Georgia governor as an unsophisticated interloper. Parmet, ironically, both acknowledges their prejudice and shares in it, although he lauds Carter for winning approval of the Panama Canal Treaty, negotiating the Camp David Accords, and improving the administration of the federal civil service system. In discussing Reagan, Parmet wrestles with the question of how the former California governor was able to rise above the gridlock that had dominated Washington since the collapse of Kennedy-Johnson liberalism in the late 1960s. Parmet identifies no fewer than ten trends that help explain Reagan's appeal and the rise of neo-conservatism in general, most of which point toward the same result: the atrophy of grassroots liberalism. "Thirty-four percent of Americans described themselves as 'liberal' in 1970," Parmet reports, "but that figure dropped to just twenty percent by the end of the decade." (p.143).	2
Oddly enough, Parmet's text and the selection of documents do not entirely mesh. Parmet makes only cursory mention of the presidencies of George Bush and Bill Clinton. The primary sources, consistent with the text, skip the Bush presidency, but of twenty-six selected documents, five deal with Clinton. A student reader might reasonably conclude that Paula Jones was more important than the Persian Gulf War, even if neither merited discussion in the text. The peculiar selection of documents is symptomatic of a more serious problem with the book: careless editing that has produced an inordinate and disconcerting number of factual mistakes and typographical errors. Chief Justice William Howard Taft, and his successor, Charles Evans Hughes, are transformed at one point into "William Howard Hughes." (p.21). Parmet says Harry S. Truman "had to take his law degree at night," (p.48), when, in fact, Truman dropped out of a four-year program after two years. Parmet seems to put Jimmy Doolittle's 1942 raid on Tokyo in 1944. (p.40). Typographical errors are too numerous to mention, but Parmet's treatment of the desegregation crisis at Little Rock Central High School in 1957 is typical. After identifying Orval Faubus as "Orville Faubus," Parmet says the Arkansas governor provoked a confrontation with federal authority by defying "a court order desegregation order." (p. 78).	3
Individually, the many miscues are forgivable. Collectively, they are not. Instructors might find some useful material in the book, but its slipshod editing sets a poor example for students. It is especially unfortunate for a historian of Parmet's stature that sheer sloppiness should make the present edition of Presidential Power unfit for classroom use.	4
Jeff Broadwater

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