Summary: This program examines presidential leadership in an era of an increasingly divided government. The American presidency was conceived as a part of a larger system of institutions, and its effectiveness rests, in part, upon a good measure of cooperation among the branches. However, as revealed in the program, as our constitutional system has developed, this cooperation has broken down at crucial...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2000
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Summary: With the rise of political parties came the dawn of political compromise: nominees who were selected not necessarily because they were the best or most obvious candidates for the presidency, but because they were less offensive to some voters than those who might have been the most apparent choices. Their primary qualification for the office often seemed not to be their positive qualities but...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2000
View online at AVOD
Summary: It is often observed that American national identity is less a condition than an idea. And, as profiled in this program, no one is better positioned to express that idea than the president himself. What we have come to refer to, as “the vision thing” is an expectation that our presidents will bring to office a particularly strong sense of national mission. The four presidents chronicled is this...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2000
View online at AVOD
Summary: The last thing that the founding fathers envisioned was a hereditary chief executive. After all, they had fought a war in part to rid themselves of a king. Yet power inevitably passes from generation to generation, and several families have returned to the White House as though born to it. Through interviews, historic archives and footage, this program explores the unique stories of four men,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2000
View online at AVOD
Summary: Nearly one in five American presidents has died in office. The vice presidents who succeeded them were often chosen for the ticket less because they were equal to the most powerful office in the land than because they provided some electoral advantage. What happens when such a man takes office frequently facing widespread conviction that he is unworthy of the powers he inherits? Through...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2000