A History of the Modern American Presidency
Title: A History of the Modern American Presidency
Author: Kathryn Cramer Brownell
Publisher: Routledge
Publication Date: September 2026
About the Book: This book guides students on a journey to explore and analyze the role and development of the American presidency. Rather than focusing on biographies of individuals, it looks at presidential periods through a lens of economic trends, technological changes and the intersection between grassroots politics and national institutions. Demonstrating a nuanced history and debate over the place of the president in American political life, the book reflects how political historians have explored a more expansive sense of the spheres in which politics happen, translating recent academic scholarship for an undergraduate audience.
About the Author: Kathryn Cramer Brownell is a professor of history whose research and teaching focus on the relationships between media, politics and popular culture with an emphasis on the American presidency.