Unmaking the Presidency, Susan Hennessey
Unmaking the Presidency, Susan Hennessey
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Unmaking the Presidency
Donald Trump's War on the World's Most Powerful Office

Author: Susan Hennessey, Benjamin Wittes

Narrator: Benjamin Wittes, Susan Hennessey

Unabridged: 12 hr 8 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/21/2020


Synopsis

This program is read by the authors.

The definitive account of how Donald Trump has wielded the powers of the American presidency.

The extraordinary authority of the U.S. presidency has no parallel in the democratic world. Today that authority resides in the hands of one man, Donald J. Trump. But rarely if ever has the nature of a president clashed more profoundly with the nature of the office. Unmaking the Presidency tells the story of the confrontation between a person and the institution he almost wholly embodies.

From the moment of his inauguration, Trump has challenged our deepest expectations of the presidency. But what are those expectations, where did they come from, and how great is the damage? As editors of the “invaluable” (The New York Times) Lawfare website, Susan Hennessey and Benjamin Wittes have attracted a large audience to their hard-hitting and highly informed commentary on the controversies surrounding the Trump administration. In this audiobook, they situate Trump-era scandals and outrages in the deeper context of the presidency itself. How should we understand the oath of office when it is taken by a man who may not know what it means to preserve, protect, and defend something other than himself? What aspects of Trump are radically different from past presidents and what aspects have historical antecedents? When has he simply built on his predecessors’ misdeeds, and when has he invented categories of misrule entirely his own?

By setting Trump in the light of history, Hennessey and Wittes provide a crucial and durable account of a presidency like no other.

About Susan Hennessey

Susan Hennessey is the executive editor and editor in chief of Lawfare. A senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and CNN contributor, she was previously an attorney at the National Security Agency. With Benjamin Wittes, she is coauthor of Unmaking the Presidency: Donald Trump's War on the World's Most Powerful Office.

About Benjamin Wittes

Benjamin Wittes is the editor in chief of Lawfare. He is senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of Law and the Long War and The Future of Violence, among other books.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Dee

I continue to read political books, hoping that I may find a gem or two that will examine the events of the day without overloading the text with a slanted view. They are difficult to find. This book at times will push toward the center for a few paragraphs before sliding back to the left. The disda......more

Goodreads review by James

Unmaking the Presidency is the 2d book I've read recently about Donald Trump and his administration which I think stands head and shoulders above the earliest books on the subject. Those early books are more tabloid accounts of the outrages and dysfunctions of the administration no more substantial......more

Goodreads review by Miguel

As a big fan of both the Lawfare and Rational Security podcasts, I’ll admit bias up front. Having said that, this is an important book not just for its timeliness but also for its documentation of the current political moment that will hopefully serve as guidepost for future historians and political......more

Goodreads review by Rich

This book strikes me as being one of the first serious academic works to look into the deleterious effects the Trump presidency has had on the institution of the American Executive. In short, it is excellently researched by two of the brightest minds of our age and does a great job of summarizing th......more

Goodreads review by Tim

An interesting book about #45 from the editors of Lawfare, who might be described as vociferous #NeverTrump conservative national security and legal experts. The goal of the book is to explore the ways Trump is changing the office of POTUS, although what emerges is an extremely damning case against......more