Presidential Travel or When Things Fell Apart

Presidential Travel: The Journey from George Washington to George W. Bush

Author: Richard J Ellis

In office less than half a year, President George Washington undertook an arduous month-long tour of New England to promote his new government and to dispel fears of monarchy. More than two hundred years later, American presidents still regularly traverse the country to advance their political goals and demonstrate their connection to the people.

In this first book-length study of the history of presidential travel, Richard Ellis explores how travel has reflected and shaped the changing relationship between American presidents and the American people. Tracing the evolution of the president from First Citizen to First Celebrity, he spins a lively narrative that details what happens when our leaders hit the road to meet the people.

Presidents, Ellis shows, have long placed travel at the service of politics: Rutherford "the Rover" Hayes visited thirty states and six territories and was the first president to reach the Pacific, while William Howard Taft logged an average of 30,000 rail miles a year. Unearthing previously untold stories of our peripatetic presidents, Ellis also reveals when the public started paying for presidential travel, why nineteenth-century presidents never left the country, and why earlier presidents—such as Andrew Jackson, once punched in the nose on a riverboat—journeyed without protection.

Ellis marks the fine line between accessibility and safety, from John Quincy Adams skinny-dipping in the Potomac to George W. clearing brush in Crawford. Particularly important, Ellis notes, is the advent of air travel. While presidents now travel more widely, they have paradoxically become more remote from the people, as Air Force One flies over townsthrough which presidential trains once rumbled to rousing cheers. Designed to close the gap between president and people, travel now dramatizes the distance that separates the president from the people and reinforces the image of a regal presidency.

As entertaining as it is informative, Ellis's book is a sprightly account that takes readers along on presidential jaunts through the years as our leaders press flesh and kiss babies, ride carriages and trains, plot strategies on board ships and planes, and try to connect with the citizens they represent.

Melissa Johnson - Library Journal

In his latest work, Ellis (politics, Willamette Univ.; Presidential Lightning Rods: The Politics of Blame Avoidance), who has written several books dealing with U.S. politics and political history, rightfully notes that it is unusual that something as important as presidential travel has not been more thoroughly covered; indeed, this is one of the few monographs dedicated to the topic (see also Bob Wither's The President Travels by Train: Politics and Pullmans). The book brings together disparate facts relating to the presidency, including the debate on appropriating government funds for travel and how the Secret Service came to be in charge of protecting the President, as well as the evolving image of the President himself, from veritable clerk of Congress to embodiment of a regal presidency. Ellis captures the essence of Congressional debates on domestic and international presidential travel over the years and outlines some of the partisan rhetoric, from Federalist to the present. Though the writing is at times tediously repetitious, this monograph provides an important look into an underexplored area of American political history and is overall a valuable addition to the collections of academic libraries.

What People Are Saying

Alan Schroeder
Succeeds not only as a history of presidential travel, but also as an inquiry into the complex relationship between American citizens and their chief executive. Original, insightful, and brimming with colorful detail. (Alan Schroeder, author of Celebrity-in-Chief)

James A. Morone
A superb tour of presidential travel and its deeper meanings. Ellis finds a fresh way to see presidents, power, and the American people. The fascinating historical detail adds up to a sober reflection of lost republican ideals. Wise, lively, elegant, fun, and vexing. (James A. Morone, author of Hellfire Nation: The Politics of Sin in American History)

Fred I. Greenstein
A fascinating and eminently readable work that provides a distinctive perspective on American social and political development. (Fred I. Greenstein, author of The Presidential Difference)

Alan Schroeder

Succeeds not only as a history of presidential travel, but also as an inquiry into the complex relationship between American citizens and their chief executive. Original, insightful, and brimming with colorful detail. (Alan Schroeder, author of Celebrity-in-Chief)

Fred I. Greenstein

A fascinating and eminently readable work that provides a distinctive perspective on American social and political development. (Fred I. Greenstein, author of The Presidential Difference)

James A. Morone

A superb tour of presidential travel and its deeper meanings. Ellis finds a fresh way to see presidents, power, and the American people. The fascinating historical detail adds up to a sober reflection of lost republican ideals. Wise, lively, elegant, fun, and vexing. (James A. Morone, author of Hellfire Nation: The Politics of Sin in American History)

Interesting book: How to Conduct Surveys or Grant and Sherman

When Things Fell Apart: State Failure in Late-Century Africa

Author: Robert H Bates

In the later decades of the 20th century, Africa plunged into political chaos. States failed, governments became predators, and citizens took up arms. In When Things Fell Apart, Robert H. Bates advances an explanation of state failure in Africa. In so doing, he not only plumbs the depths of the continent's late-century tragedy, but also the logic of political order and the foundations of the state. This book covers a wide range of territory by drawing on materials from Rwanda, Sudan, Liberia, and Congo. Written to be accessible to the general reader, it is nonetheless a must-read for scholars and policy makers concerned with political conflict and state failure.

Table of Contents:

Acknowledgments     xi
Introduction
Introduction     3
From Fable to Fact     15
Sowing the Seeds
Political Legacies     33
Policy Choices     55
Subnational Tensions     75
Things Fall Apart
Things Fall Apart     97
Conclusion     129
Appendix
Cross-National Regressions     143
Bibliography     175
Index     187