Throughout our history, Americans have been simultaneously inspired and seduced by the American presidency and concerned about the misuse of presidential powerfrom the time of Lincoln, Wilson, and FDR to Nixon, Reagan, and George W. Bushas a grave threat to the United States. In Bad for Democracy, Dana D. Nelson goes beyond blaming particular presidents for jeopardizing the delicate balance of the Constitution to argue that it is the office of the presidency itself that endangers the great American experiment.

Dana D. Nelson is a professor of English and American studies at Vanderbilt University, where she teaches classes in U.S. literature and history, and courses that connect activism, volunteering, and citizenship. She has published numerous books and essays on U.S. literature and the history of citizenship and democratic culture. She lives in Nashville and is involved locally with a program that helps incarcerated women develop strong decision-making skills and with an innovative activist group fighting homelessness in the area.

Introduction: The People v. Presidentialism, 1. How the President Becomes a Superhero, 2. Voting and the Incredibly Shrinking Citizen, 3. Presidential War Powers and Politics as War, 4. Going Corporate with the Unitary Executive Conclusion: Reclaiming Democratic Power for Ourselves, Acknowledgments, Bibliography, Index