The Presidents We Imagine: Two Centuries of White House Fictions on the Page, on the Stage, Onscreen, and Online (Studies in American Thought and Culture)
Category: Books,Literature & Fiction,History & Criticism
The Presidents We Imagine: Two Centuries of White House Fictions on the Page, on the Stage, Onscreen, and Online (Studies in American Thought and Culture) Details
From Publishers Weekly American culture scholar and former political reporter Smith argues that the highest political post in the land "could not exist without first being imagined"; here, he examines how the Presidency has been imagined and re-imagined through fiction and film ever since George Washington took the oath. Smith finds that even the earliest biographers took literary license-today, "Parson" Weems's profile of Washington is considered historical fiction-but also that fictional presidents have mirrored their future real-world counterparts (like the protagonist of Irving Wallace's 1964 novel The Man, an African-American campaigning for president). Tom Clancy, The West Wing, The Manchurian Candidate, Tanner '88 and "President Barbie" come under the scope, and a number of plots-from the political adventures of Jack Downing (creation of newspaperman Seba Smith) to the animated Web series Hard-Drinkin' Lincoln-get summary treatment. Unfortunately, Smith's scholarly prose limits his work's appeal; readers expecting a colorful examination of cultural politics and political culture will find a thesis-like examination, which often lacks cohesion besides. Still, he presents a fresh angle on a popular topic, suitable for more serious-minded fans of Presidential history. 32 b/w illus. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Read more Review Especially timely in an era when media image-mongering increasingly shapes presidential politics." - Paul S. Boyer, series editorThis is an extraordinarily interesting, beautifully written book, with scores of fascinating insights into the ways that high culture and, increasingly, mass culture, have depicted American presidents." - James B. Gilbert, author of Explorations of American Culture Read more See all Editorial Reviews
Reviews
_The Presidents We Imagine_ is a fascinating and engrossing book. Smith begins by describing just how novel a task the founders faced in creating the office of chief executive of the new federal government. There were no real models to follow. Kings, emperors, consuls, tribunes--none of them suited the new revolutionary nation. As Smith shows, the office of president had to be imagined almost out of whole cloth. From those original imaginings has evolved an office whose holder is the most powerful individual on the planet.It's an extraordinary story and Smith tells it extremely well, examining in detail a remarkable array of acts of imagination concerning the presidency from the 18th century to the present day. He handles multiple genres and forms of popular imagination with compelling skill and perceptiveness. The accounts of Washington, Jackson and Lincoln put these hoary figures in a new context that defamiliarizes them in an unusually rewarding way. The treatment of the modern era is penetrating, shrewd, fair--and often quite humorous. Smith knows his subject so thoroughly that he effortlessly packs many individual pages of the book with a startling number of sharp, finely- honed insights. He is a polished, lucid writer with equal strength in both narrative and analysis. As a result, the book is a distinct pleasure to read, and also a truly innovative contribution to American cultural and political history.
