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Miller Center Studies on the Presidency

Averting Doomsday
Arms Control during the Nixon Presidency Patrick J. Garrity and Erin R. Mahan

In the controversial legacy of the Nixon presidency, the administration’s effort to curb and control the spread of the world’s weapons of mass destruction is often overlooked. And yet by the time President Nixon left office under the cloud of the Watergate scandal, his actions on this front had... More

The Presidency
Facing Constitutional Crossroads Edited by Michael Nelson and Barbara A. Perry

Following the election of Donald Trump, the office of the U.S. president has come under scrutiny like never before. Featuring penetrating insights from high-profile presidential scholars, The Presidency provides the deep historical and constitutional context needed to put the Trump era into its... More

American Dreams
Opportunity and Upward Mobility Edited by Guian McKee and Cristina Lopez-Gottardi Chao

In an increasingly polarized political environment, the first year of the new president’s term will be especially challenging. With a fresh mandate, however, the first year also offers opportunities that may never come again. The First Year Project is a fascinating initiative by the Miller Center... More

Broken Government
Bridging the Partisan Divide Edited by William J. Antholis and Larry J. Sabato

In an increasingly polarized political environment, the first year of the new president’s term will be especially challenging. With a fresh mandate, however, the first year also offers opportunities that may never come again. The First Year Project is a fascinating initiative by the Miller Center... More

Communication
Getting the Message Across Edited by Nicole Hemmer

In an increasingly polarized political environment, the first year of the new president’s term will be especially challenging. With a fresh mandate, however, the first year also offers opportunities that may never come again. The First Year Project is a fascinating initiative by the Miller Center... More

Immigration
Struggling over Borders Edited by Sidney Milkis and David Leblang

In an increasingly polarized political environment, the first year of the new president’s term will be especially challenging. With a fresh mandate, however, the first year also offers opportunities that may never come again. The First Year Project is a fascinating initiative by the Miller Center... More

Race
The American Cauldron Edited by Douglas A. Blackmon

In an increasingly polarized political environment, the first year of the new president’s term will be especially challenging. With a fresh mandate, however, the first year also offers opportunities that may never come again. The First Year Project is a fascinating initiative by the Miller Center... More

Trump
The First Two Years Michael Nelson

On the first anniversary of Donald Trump’s presidency, Michael Nelson, one of our finest and most objective presidential scholars, published Trump’s First Year, a nonpartisan assessment that was widely hailed as the best account of one of the most unusual years in presidential history. At the... More

Crucible
The President's First Year Edited by Michael Nelson, Jeffrey L. Chidester, and Stefanie Georgakis Abbott

Is the presidency a position one must learn on the job, or can one learn from others’ experience? No common thread runs through the list of forty-five presidents; no playbook provides the answers to all the challenges a president will face. Yet even in the most unprecedented situations, history can... More

Trump's First Year
 Michael Nelson

Donald Trump took office in January 2017 under mostly favorable conditions. He inherited neither a war nor an economic depression, and his party controlled both houses of Congress. He leveraged this successfully in some ways by delivering on his campaign promises to roll back regulations on... More

Fatal Politics
The Nixon Tapes, the Vietnam War, and the Casualties of Reelection Ken Hughes

In his widely acclaimed Chasing Shadows ("the best account yet of Nixon’s devious interference with Lyndon Johnson’s 1968 Vietnam War negotiations"-- Washington Post), Ken Hughes revealed the roots of the covert activity that culminated in Watergate. In Fatal Politics, Hughes turns to the final... More

The Dangerous First Year
National Security at the Start of a New Presidency Edited by William I. Hitchcock and Melvyn P. Leffler

"You’ve got to give it all you can that first year.... You’ve got just one year when they treat you right, and before they start worrying about themselves.... So, you’ve got one year."--Lyndon B. Johnson, January 1965In an increasingly polarized political environment, the first year of the new... More

Chasing Shadows
The Nixon Tapes, the Chennault Affair, and the Origins of Watergate Ken Hughes

The break-in at Watergate and the cover-up that followed brought about the resignation of Richard Nixon, creating a political shockwave that reverberates to this day. But as Ken Hughes reveals in his powerful new book, in all the thousands of hours of declassified White House tapes, the president... More

The War Bells Have Rung
The LBJ Tapes and the Americanization of the Vietnam War George Herring

In the summer of 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson faced an agonizing decision. On June 7, General William Westmoreland had come to him with a "bombshell" request to more than double the number of existing troops in Vietnam. LBJ, who wished to be remembered as a great reformer, not as a war... More