Bøger udgivet af University Press of Kansas

There is more to defense than military might and more to the military than a fighting force. At a moment of global upheaval and political uncertainty, this timely volume defines and reframes the terms of defense engagement - the use of military capabilities to exert soft power (influence) as opposed to hard power (military force).

This work celebrates the rescue of America's national parks by soldiers with an environmental ethic generations ahead of its time. From 1890 until the establishment of the National Park Service in 1916, Yosemite's first stewards were soldiers drawn from the US Army.

Usually remembered for its slogan ';Tippecanoe and Tyler too,' the election of 1840 is also the first presidential election of which it might be truly said, ';Its the Economy, Stupid.' Tackling a contest best known for log cabins, cider barrels, and catchy songs, this timely volume reveals that the election of 1840 might be better understood as a case study of how profoundly the economy shapes the presidential vote.Richard J. Ellis, a veteran scholar of presidential politics, suggests that the election pitting the Democratic incumbent Martin Van Buren against Whig William Henry Harrison should also be remembered as the first presidential election in which a major political party selectedrather than merely anointedits nominee at a national nominating convention. In this analysis, the convention's selection, as well as Henry Clay's post-convention words and deeds, emerge as crucial factors in the shaping of the nineteenth-century partisan nation. Exploring the puzzle of why the Whig Party's political titan Henry Clay lost out to a relative political also-ran, Ellis teases out the role the fluctuating economy and growing anti-slavery sentiment played in the party's fateful decision to nominate the Harrison-Tyler ticket. His work dismantles the caricature of the 1840 campaign (a.k.a. the ';carnival campaign') as all froth and no substance, instead giving due seriousness to the deeply held moral commitments, as well as anxieties about the political system, that informed the campaign.In Old Tip vs. the Sly Fox, the campaign of 1840 can finally be seen clearly for what it was: a contest of two profoundly different visions of policy and governance, including fundamental, still-pressing questions about the place of the presidency and Congress in the US political system.

A classic on the politics of leadership, now expanded to include a new chapter on the Obama presidency. Examines the typical political problems that presidents confront and how they assert their authority in the service of change.

Considers Lincoln's democratic and rhetorical statesmanship, drawing comparisons with his contemporaries Henry Clay and Stephen Douglas or even such a distant forerunner as Pericles. This volume renders a nuanced, deeply informed judgment on what distinguishes Lincoln as a statesman, and what distinguishes a statesman from a politician.

In 1883 US Congress charged the army with managing Yellowstone National Park. When they departed in 1918, America had a new sort of serviceman: the National Park Service Ranger. This book tells the story of the US troops charged with imposing order on man and nature in America's first national park.

At the end of the Civil War, a military court convicted Lambdin Milligan and his coconspirators of fomenting an insurrection and sentenced them to hang. On appeal, the US Supreme Court sided with the conspirators. This book argues the case affords an opportunity to reevaluate the history of wartime civil liberties from the Civil War to the present.

In the wake of the 2016 presidential election there was widespread shock that the Midwest, the Democrats' so-called blue wall, had been so effectively breached by Donald Trump. But the blue wall, as The Conservative Heartland makes clear, was never quite as secure as so many observers assumed.

Tells the story of Marine Lieutenant David Westphall, who was killed near Con Thien on May 22, 1968, and of the Westphall family's subsequent struggle to create and maintain a one-of-a-kind memorial chapel dedicated to the memory of all Americans lost in the Vietnam War and to the cause of world peace.

The most comprehensive account ever written of contemporary minor political parties in the United States, Beyond Donkeys and Elephants covers parties at the national, regional, and state levels. It discusses the well-known alternatives as well as niche state-level parties.

In the wake of the 2016 presidential election there was widespread shock that the Midwest, the Democrats' so-called blue wall, had been so effectively breached by Donald Trump. But the blue wall, as The Conservative Heartland makes clear, was never quite as secure as so many observers assumed.

The demotion of freedom of association has broad ramifications for the constitutional status of voluntary associations in civil society, Luke Sheahan suggests. His book offers a cogent explanation of how this came about, why it matters, and what might be done about it.

Bringing together political scientists and legal scholars of wide-ranging interests, this book explores the role of the family in American political development: as a focus of political struggle, a place where policy happens, a means of distributing governmental goods, and a way of relating individuals to the state and to each other in legal terms.

Bringing together political scientists and legal scholars of wide-ranging interests, this book explores the role of the family in American political development: as a focus of political struggle, a place where policy happens, a means of distributing governmental goods, and a way of relating individuals to the state and to each other in legal terms.

As populism presaging authoritarianism surges worldwide and political rights and civil liberties erode, pundits, politicians, and political scientists agree: democracy is in crisis. But where many blame the rise of neoliberalism, Kyong-Min Son suggests that a longer historical perspective is in order.

In the presidential elections of 1980, 1984, and 1988, the three Democratic nominees won an average of about 10 percent of the Electoral College votea smaller share than any party in any three consecutive presidential elections in US history. In the next seven elections, Democrats won the popular vote in all but one (2004), a feat not achieved by a political party since the Democratic Party's inception in the 1820s. What separated these record-setting runs was the election and presidency of Bill Clinton, whose pivotal role in ushering in a new era of American politicsfor better and for worsethis book explores.Perhaps because Clinton's presidency was hobbled by six years of divided government, ended in a sex scandal and impeachment, and was sandwiched between Republican administrations, it is easy to forget that he revived a presidential party that had become nearly moribund. In Clinton's Elections Michael Nelson describes how, by tacking relentlessly to the center, Clinton revived the Democrats' presidential fortunesbut also, paradoxically, effectively erased the center, in the process introducing the new political reality of extreme partisan divisiveness and dysfunctional government. Tracing Clinton's place in American politics from his emergence as a potential nominee in 1988 to his role in political campaigns right up to 2016, Nelson draws a deft portrait of a savvy politician operating in the midst of divided government and making strategic moves to consolidate power and secure future victories. With its absorbing narrative and incisive analysis, his book makes sense of a watershed in the modern American political landscapeand lays bare the roots of our current era of political dysfunction.

Explores whether advances in technology, from the railroad and the airplane to the nuclear weapon and the computer, have altered both the critical relationship between logistics and warfare and, ultimately, geopolitical dynamics.

Offers an unprecedented, behind-the-headlines analysis of a now almost unimaginable political moment, which proved to be a pivotal turning point in polarizing American political parties along ideological and cultural lines and eventually in destroying the winning coalition that Jimmy Carter created.

The Native American passion for basketball extends far beyond the Navajo, whether on reservations or in cities, among the young and the old. Why basketball - a relatively new sport - should hold such a place in Native culture is the question Wade Davies takes up in Native Hoops.

It was the third week of May 1863, and after seven months and six attempts, Ulysses S. Grant was finally at the doorstep of Vicksburg. What followed was a series of attacks and maneuvers against the last major section of the Mississippi River controlled by the Confederacyand one of the most important operations of the Civil War. Grant intended to end the campaign quickly by assault, but the stalwart defense of Vicksburg's garrison changed his plans. The Union Assaults at Vicksburg is the first comprehensive account of this quick attempt to capture Vicksburg, which proved critical to the Union's ultimate success and Grants eventual solidification as one of the most significant military commanders in American history.Establishing a day-to-dayand occasionally minute-to-minutetimeline for this crucial week, military historian Timothy B. Smith invites readers to follow the Vicksburg assaults as they unfold. His finely detailed account reaches from the offices of statesmen and politicians to the field of battle, with exacting analysis and insight that ranges from the highest level of planning and command to the combat experience of the common soldier. As closely observed and vividly described as each assault is, Smith's book also puts the sum of these battles into the larger context of the Vicksburg campaign, as well as the entire war. His deeply informed, in-depth work thus provides the first full view of a key but little-studied turning point in the fortunes of the Union army in the West, Ulysses S. Grant, and the United States of America.

For more than four decades, the Hanford nuclear weapons facility in Washington State secretly blanketed much of the Pacific Northwest with low-dose ionizing radiation, the byproduct of plutonium production. Trisha Pritikin tells the devastating story of those who were harmed in Hanford's wake and, seeking justice, were subjected to more suffering.

There is more to the pro-life movement than campaigning against abortion. That, at least, is the logic behind a large and growing network of pro-life pregnancy centres offering "help" to pregnant women. As these centres face increasing scrutiny, this book offers the first social-scientific study of the pro-life pregnancy help movement.

Why have offices of inspector general (OIGs) been so widely adopted, and what do they do? How do they contribute to accountability, and what are their limitations? In The Power of Accountability Robin J. Kempf sets out to address these questions.

Americas founders envisioned a federal government of limited and enumerated powers. What they could not envision, of course, was the vast and complex infrastructure that the growing nation would demanda demand that became ever clearer as the power and importance of railroads emerged. The requirements of a nationwide rail network, it also became clear, far exceeded the resources of state and local government and private industry. The consequences, as seen in this book, amounted to state building from the ground up. In Railroads and American Political Development Zachary Callen tells the story of the federal governments role in developing a national rail systemand the rail systems role in expanding the power of the federal government. The book reveals how state building, so often attributed to an aggressive national government, can also result from local governments making demands on the national statea dynamic that can still be seen at work every time the US Congress takes up a transportation bill.Though many states invested in their local railroads, and many quite successfully, others were less willing or less capableso rail development necessarily became a federal concern. Railroads and American Political Development shows how this led to the Land Grant Act of 1850, a crucial piece of legislation in the building of both the nations infrastructure and the American state. Chronicling how this previously local issue migrated to the federal state, and how federal action then altered American rail planning, the book offers a new perspective on the exact nature of federalism. In the case of rail development, we see how state governments factor into the American state building process, and how, in turn, the separation of powers at the federal level shaped that process. The result is a fresh view of the development of the American rail system, as well as a clearer picture of the pressures and political logic that have altered and expanded the reach of American federalism.

Presto! No More Pests! proclaimed a 1955 article introducing two new pesticides, "e;miracle-workers for the housewife and back-yard farmer."e; Easy to use, effective, and safe: who wouldnt love synthetic pesticides? Apparently most Americans didand apparently still do. Whyin the face of dire warnings, rising expense, and declining effectivenessdo we cling to our chemicals? Michelle Mart wondered. Her book, a cultural history of pesticide use in postwar America, offers an answer.America's embrace of synthetic pesticides began when they burst on the scene during World War II and has held steady into the 21st centuryfor example, more than 90% of soybeans grown in the US in 2008 are Roundup Ready GMOs, dependent upon generous use of the herbicide glyphosate to control weeds. Mart investigates the attraction of pesticides, with their up-to-the-minute promise of modernity, sophisticated technology, and increased productivityin short, their appeal to human dreams of controlling nature. She also considers how they reinforced Cold War assumptions of Western economic and material superiority.Though the publication of Rachel Carsons Silent Spring and the rise of environmentalism might have marked a turning point in Americans faith in pesticides, statistics tell a different story. Pesticides, a Love Story recounts the campaign against DDT that famously ensued; but the book also shows where our notions of Silent Springs revolutionary impact falterwhere, in spite of a ban on DDT, farm use of pesticides in the United States more than doubled in the thirty years after the book was published. As a cultural survey of popular and political attitudes toward pesticides, Pesticides, a Love Story tries to make sense of this seeming paradox. At heart, it is an exploration of the story we tell ourselves about the costs and benefits of pesticidesand how corporations, government officials, ordinary citizens, and the press shape that story to reflect our ideals, interests, and emotions.

How much power does a president really have? Theories and arguments abound. Borrowing from Machiavelli, Bruce Miroff maps five fields of political struggle that presidents must traverse to make any headway: media, powerful economic interests, political coalitions, the high-risk politics of domestic policy, and the partisan politics of foreign policy.

Few first ladies have enjoyed a better reputation among historians than Edith Kermit Roosevelt. Aristocratic and sophisticated, tasteful and discreet, she managed the White House with a sure hand. Her admirers say that she never slipped in carrying out her duties as hostess, mother, and adviser to her husband. Lewis Gould's path-breaking study, however, presents a more complex and interesting figure than the somewhat secularized saint Edith Roosevelt has become in the literature on first ladies. While many who knew her found her inspiring and gracious, family members also recalled a more astringent and sometimes nasty personality. Gould looks beneath the surface of her life to examine the intricate legacy of her tenure from 1901 to 1909.The narrative in this book thus uncovers much new about Edith Roosevelt. Far from being averse to activism, Edith Roosevelt served as a celebrity sponsor at a New York musical benefit and also intervened in a high-profile custody dispute. Gould traces her role in the failed marriage of a United States senator, her efforts to secure the ambassador from Great Britain that she wanted, and the growing tension between her and Helen Taft in 1908-1909. Her commitment to bringing classical music artists to the White House, along with other popular performers, receives the fullest attention to date.Gould also casts a skeptical eye over the area where Edith Roosevelt's standing has been strongest, her role as a mother. He looks at how she and her husband performed as parents and dissents from the accustomed judgment that all was well with the way the Roosevelt offspring developed. Most important of all, Gould reveals the first lady's deep animus toward African Americans and their place in American society. She believed "e;that any mixture of races is an unmitigated evil."e; The impact of her bigotry on Theodore Roosevelt's racial policies must now be an element in any future discussion of that sensitive subject.On balance, Gould finds that Edith Roosevelt played an important and creative part in how the institution of the first lady developed during the twentieth century. His sprightly retelling of her White House years will likely provoke controversy and debate. All those interested in how the role of the presidential wife has evolved will find in this stimulating book a major contribution to the literature on a fascinating president. It also brings to life a first lady whose legacy must now be seen in a more nuanced and challenging light.

Provides an account of relations between American spymasters and Capitol Hill. This book provides a historical perspective for debates in Congress and beyond concerning the agency's recent failures and ultimate fate. It shows that anxieties over the challenges to democracy posed by our intelligence communities have been with us from the beginning.

Why does the American Civil War still speak to us so powerfully? Many of the questions at the heart of the conflict are also central to the very idea of America - and that many of them remain unresolved. This book offers the opportunity to pursue these questions from a new, critical perspective.