"The Presidential Character" unifies political psychology, history, and biography to help readers understand the complex factors that influence our vote. In addition, the author includes predictions actually written and published before Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Bush ever served and presents an analysis of how predictions work.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From the Publisher
Incorporating U.S. presidents from Taft to Bush, this volume uses research-based political psychology, history, and biography to provide a means of determining the performance of candidates as president.
From the Back Cover
The Presidential Character: Predicting Performance in the White House, Fourth Edition
James David Barber
LONGMAN CLASSICS IN POLITICAL SCIENCE
In revising classic works in political science, Longman celebrates the contributions its authors and their research have made to the discipline. The Longman Classics in Political Science series honors these authors and their work. Providing students with an updated context, each title in the series includes a new foreword, written by one of today’s top scholars, offering a fresh, in-depth analysis of the book and its enduring contributions.
What should we look for in a president?
This timeless question begs reconsideration in light of today’s crucial presidential election season. To that end, The Presidential Character, James David Barber’s well-known, provocative examination of who has the potential to be voted into the highest office in the land–and why–is being reissued as the newest addition to the Longman Classics in Political Science series.
Arguing that patterns in a person’s character, world view, and political style can allow us to anticipate his or her performance as president, this classic text offers explanations and predictions of the performance of past presidents and presidential candidates.
Features
- Presents a new foreword by presidential scholar George C. Edwards III, Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Texas A&M University, that highlights the book’s classic and enduring contributions.
- Includes predictions of presidential performance published before Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Bush ever served.
- Analyzes the media’s role in providing information about the political candidates and in shaping public opinion of them.
- Draws on historical, biographical, and psychological research to help voters make judicious choices in determining the country’s highest leaders.
- Encourages citizens to be actively involved scholars, critics, and participants in their government.
Visit us at www.pearsonhighered.com
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Putting the American President on the psychiatrist's couch,
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This review is from: Presidential Character: Predicting Performance In The White House (4th Edition) (Paperback)
This is an incredibly fascinating book for those interested in the history of the American Presidency and particularly of the occupants of that office. Mr. Barber analyzes the presidents by two main factors: activity (how much effort a particular president put into performing his job) and the president's personality type and world-view (whether a president viewed his role in the world in a positive or negative light). From this Mr. Barber theorizes that there are four major presidential types: active-positive, active-negative, passive-positive, and passive-negative. By analyzing an individual's personality prior to his entry into the White House, Mr. Barber suggests that one can predict his performance while in the presidency. For example, he categorizes FDR, JFK, and Truman as active-positives (high activity while president with each having a positive view of the world), Taft, Harding and Reagan as passive-positives (low effort put into performance of their duties, while trying to show a positive, if timorous, face to the world), and Coolidge and Ike as passive-negatives (each viewing his role in the presidency as a duty to perform rather than something in which to look forward).The best parts of the book are in which Mr. Barber talks about the active-negative presidents, all of whom have proved disastrous to the office. Each of these presidents had put much effort and personal investment into the performance of his duties, but without any enjoyment. For each of these men, life has always been a struggle and the personal rewards few. Compulsiveness and anxiety was each man's life-script. None of them could ever afford to rest on his laurels after some success, because if he did so, he would only have to re-double his efforts next time for fear of committing failure. None could admit error and saw compromise with his opposition something to avoid at all costs. All became frozen in the rightness of a certain policy line. This was despite all evidence showing that policy had long been proven a failure. Woodrow Wilson would not compromise with opposition Republican Senators who had certain reservations about the U.S. becoming a member of the League of Nations. The result was that the League treaty was voted down, the U.S. never became a member, and America entered a generation of isolationism. World War II was the final outcome. Herbert Hoover, sticking to his belief in "rugged individualism," would not modify his opposition to the government's stepping in to ameliorate of the effects of the Great Depression. By the time Hoover put forth his Reconstruction Finance Corporation proposal to provide loans to some businesses, the financial and unemployment crisis in the country seemed beyond repair. The voting public was ready to dump the seemingly heartless and "inactive" Hoover (who was really anything but) for the more positive and hopeful FDR. Lyndon Johnson persisted in sending more and more troops into the Vietnam quagmire despite all evidence indicating that his persistent escalation of the war had long been proven wrong. The result was ever-rising death toll of American boys, massive anti-war demonstrations, and devastating urban riots. Then, of course, there was Richard Nixon, who persisted in his lies and deceipt in the coverup of the Watergate Scandal. Not only did he become the first president to resign, but his legacy was a weakened presidency by a casting of mistrust and suspicion on all the future inhabitants of that esteemed office. Mr. Barber said that all of this could have been avoided if the American people had paid closer attention to Nixon's behavior in previous political campaigns and then deciding not to honor him by elevating him to president. To Mr. Barber's credit, he readily admits that some presidents do not fit easily into one category or the other. For example, while he generally classifies Eisenhower as a passive-negative, Ike showed from time to time some active traits in the presidency. Likewise, while Truman was basically an active-positive, he often peevish personality could have easily lead him into some negative policy trap.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Bit Of Political Science, Just Not That Relevant,
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This review is from: The Presidential Character: Predicting Performance in the White House (Longman Classics in Political Science), revised (4th Edition) (Paperback)
Barber is a man on a mission, albeit a mission that is of little relevance. He is attempting to devise a system that can be used to predict the performance of American Presidents, as well as, Presidential Candidates. Barber's view would appear to be that political scientists should devise a system that will prevent bad men from being elected President. Thus, America can be saved all the problems associated with poorly performing individuals. (I am almost tempted to question whether this would include Republicans from Barber's perspective, but I will not.) He believes that this can be done looking at the way the grew up and their outlook towards work. The main problem with this is that you cannot predict from a distance what people will do. You can also argue about where each candidate should actually be located on this scheme. Otherwise, a nice bit of political science.
2.0 out of 5 stars
A classic, but shows its age,
By
This review is from: The Presidential Character: Predicting Performance in the White House (Longman Classics in Political Science), revised (4th Edition) (Paperback)
Barber's treatise was seminal and has been quite well-received. It is well-written and interesting. However, the psychology is archaic. Barber postulates two dimensions of presidential personality: Activity and positive vs. negative orientation. This is an arbitrary and very incomplete perspective on personality - which incidentally, has been studied very extensively in psychology over the past 50 years or so. The assessment of a given president's standing on each trait is entirely Barber's, not the result of any formal attempt at measurement or a consensus of experts. In sum, this is an armchair psychological analysis, with virtually no connection to other attempts to understand personality or its relationship to leadership.
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