Guardian of the Presidency

As America’s leading expert on the Presidency and an adviser to presidents from Harry S Truman to Bill Clinton, Richard E. Neustadt was “the most penetrating analyst of power since Machiavelli,” as Guardian of the Presidency makes clear. In this inspirational book, Neustadt’s former colleagues and students celebrate the rich and diverse contributions he made to political and academic life in the United States and beyond. JFK confidant Ted Sorensen, the late historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Harrison Wellford, formerly of the Office of Management and Budget, and Matthew Dickinson focus on his role as a White House adviser. Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter highlights Neustadt’s ability to interpret the Presidency for the outside world. Fellow scholars Ernest May, Charles O. Jones, Harvey Fineberg, and Graham Allison analyze his legacy as an educator and founding director of Harvard’s Institute of Politics. Anthony King (Britain at the Polls) and Eric Redman (The Dance of Legislation) discuss his work in the United Kingdom and Brazil. Former Vice President Al Gore offers an appreciation of Neustadt’s influence on generations of students. The book concludes with Elizabeth Neustadt’s personal reflections about her father.

Matthew J. Dickinson is professor of political science at Middlebury College. An expert on the Presidency, he is the author of Bitter Harvest: FDR, Presidential Power, and the Growth of the Presidential Branch (Cambridge University Press, 1996). Elizabeth A. Neustadt is head of Consultancy and Professional Development at the Tavistock Institute in London. She is the daughter of Richard E. Neustadt. Doris Kearns Goodwin is a Pulitzer Prize winning author and presidential historian. Her most recent book is Team of Rivals:The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (Simon & Schuster, 2005).