Customer Reviews

Bitter Harvest: FDR, Presidential Power and the Growth of the Presidential Branch

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If you care about how the presidency works or should work, you will purchase this book. Dickinson not only presents a readable, intersting history of FDR, he wonderfully contrasts Roosevelt's techniques and how and why his successors ignored and refused to employ them. It's not a "catch-all" nor a "cookbook" for presidents (although it has both of those elements), but a study into what doesn't work at the executive organizational level. For something that will change the way you look at everything from Healthcare reform to Iran-Contra, this book is definitely a winner.

"Bitter Harvest" discusses the original growth of the White House under FDR and contrasts his staff management techniques with those presidents who followed (and who, according to the author, did a far inferior job of making the staff work for the president rather than vice versa). There is a lot of detail on the 1930s and 1940s here, but it's worth digging through. The book makes a strong argument, and backs it up nicely; highly recommended for those interested in presidential power and the influence that presidential staffs have had on American public policy.