The U.S. Presidency

Fulfills US History requirement for History Majors.This course will provide a survey of the Presidency of the United States from its invention at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 to the present day. We will proceed chronologically through all the Presidents and their Administrations, with particular focus on Presidents who are traditionally regarded as less than successful. From this basis we will also spend considerable time on the issue of how all Presidents reputations tend to fluctuate over time. We will also discuss issues such as the expectations Americans traditionally place on Presidents and whether those are realistic. Each student will produced a final project on a particular President whose reputation and its ups and downs interest them.