F1A. Six Presidents Who Expanded Executive Authority
History & World Affairs | Registration opens 8/27/2025 9:00 AM
In 1973, historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. warned of The Imperial Presidency. Yet even he could scarcely imagine the recent claims to unbridled executive authority indulged by a compliant Supreme Court and Congress. How was this point reached where the executive has overwhelmed the founders’ notion of checks and balances through three co-equal branches? This class will look at six presidents whose expansive use of their authority most enlarged the powers of the office: Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, and Ronald Reagan. How did they navigate the line between forceful executive action and constitutional constraints?
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Mark Lytle
Presenter
Mark Lytle, PhD, is the Lyford Paterson Edwards and Mary Gray Edwards Professor Emeritus of Historical Studies at Bard. In addition to his biography of Rachel Carson and America's Uncivil Wars, a history of the 60s era, he is the author of the recently published The All-Consuming Nation: Pursuing the American Dream Since World War II (Oxford).