Winning The White House: The Evolution Of The Presidency (OOL)
Osher Online | Registration opens Sunday, August 16, 2026 2:00 PM
Harry S. Truman once described the presidency as “the most peculiar office in the world.” In this course, we will explore how the Founding Fathers left the office for future presidents to define, creating conditions for a dramatic expansion of executive power. We will examine how the presidency has come to dominate the three co-equal branches, with Congress and the Supreme Court at times ceding authority.
We will consider how and why this shift occurred, how this peculiar office is won or lost, how they have exercised power, and how the rise of the administrative state has reshaped the balance envisioned by the framers.
This Program meets Tuesdays, September 29 through November 3 at 10:00 am
Each live session is 90 minutes
Tuesday, September 29
Tuesday, October 6
Tuesday, October 13
Tuesday, October 20
Tuesday, October 27
Tuesday, November 3
As this class is delivered by the National Resource Center for OLLIs (NRC) at Northwestern University, you will receive a welcome email from osheronline@northwestern.edu. The email will include your credentials (username & password) as well as a hyperlink to the Osher Online Website through which you will access your course website. Please save the link once you receive it. Multi-session courses will use this same link each week.
John White
John Kenneth White is a political scientist specializing in American political parties and the US presidency. White is the author of several books, including The New Politics of Old Values, Still Seeing Red, Barack Obama’s America, Grand Old Unraveling, and Democracy on the Edge, co-authored with Matthew R. Kerbel. He taught at The Catholic University of America and writes a biweekly column for The Hill, a Washington, D.C. based publication covering the White House and Capitol Hill.