The Constitution states that ""no title of nobility shall be granted by the United States,"" yet it seems political nobility is as American as apple pie.America was founded in rebellion against nobility and inherited status. Yet from the start, dynastic families have been conspicuous in national politics. The Adamses. The Lodges. The Tafts. The Roosevelts. The Kennedys. And today the Bushes and the Clintons.Longtime presidential historian Stephen Hess offers an encyclopedic t...

In this book, Stephen Hess examines why certain Senators are considered more ""newsworthy"" than others. Using interviews, observation, and statistical studies, he identifies the major factors that influence media coverage.

""Some people think that etiquette is fine for tea parties, but there's no room for it when important political business has to be done,"" writes Miss Manners, otherwise known as Judith Martin. ""That's not true. The more controversy you have, the more etiquette you need. You need rules and order."" The missing ingredient in efforts to improve campaign discourse is a set of agreed-upon norms and standards for behavior. In this shrewd and amusing series of observations, Stephen Hess provide...

In the vast literature on the way democratic governments work, the role of the press is often overlooked. Yet the press, no less than the formal branches of government, is a public policy institution and deserves to be included in explanations of the governmental process. In The Washington Reporters, Stephen Hess focuses on those who cover the U.S. government for the American commercial news media. His book is based on interviews with reporters and editors and on responses to questionnaire...

This book surveys press relations with the federal government, examines the way official press offices prepare and conduct briefings, and considers criticisms concerning the government's control of information.

Written by leading construction law practitioners, the Forum on the Construction Law's newly updated textbook Construction Law, Second Edition meets the pressing need for a comprehensive law school textbook. It provides a complete orientation to the construction industry and its processes, and it can be used for introductory survey courses or more advanced courses oriented towards litigation or transactions.Construction Law, Second Edition examines the roles of th...

As this book was being written, the United States exploded in outrage against the murder by police of people of color across the country. Corporations, branches of state and local government, and educational institutions all pledged to work for racial justice and the Black Lives Matters movement moved into the mainstream as people from multiple racial and class identities pledged their support to its message. Diversity initiatives abounded, mission statements everywhere were changed to inc...

Examining how the White House works-or doesn't-before and after TrumpDonald Trump has reinvented the presidency, transforming it from a well-oiled if sometimes cumbersome institution into what has often seemed to be a one-man show. But even Trump's unorthodox presidency requires institutional support, from a constantly rotating White House staff and cabinet who have sought to carry out-and sometimes resist-the president's direct orders and comply with his many tweet...

An insightful, often humorous look at how Washington works, or doesn'tThe title Bit Player perfectly reflects Stephen Hess's long and distinguished career as a Washington insider. As a 25-year-old, recently discharged Army private in 1958, he suddenly found himself as part of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's speechwriting team that ultimately helped draft the famed “Farewell Address” warning of the influence of the “military industrial complex.” Then over the next...

In 1978 Brookings Senior Fellow Stephen Hess surveyed 450 journalists who were covering national government for U.S. commercial news organizations. His study became the award-winning The Washington Reporters (Brookings, 1981), the first volume in his Newswork series. Now, a generation later, Hess and his team from Brookings and the George Washington University have tracked down 90 percent of the original group, interviewing 283, some as far afield as France, England, Italy, and Au...

This book contains a collection of Stephen Hess's best essays on the presidency. Written over a fifteen year period, the essays selected are just as relevant today as when they were first published. Each essay says something useful about the office of the presidency or a specific president.The book includes:""Presidential Qualities,"" originally published when Richard Nixon was president, addresses the characteristics we should want in a chief executive regardless of whether...

What happens when a conservative president makes a liberal professor from the Ivy League his top urban affairs adviser? The president is Richard Nixon, the professor is Harvard's Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Of all the odd couples in American public life, they are probably the oddest. Add another Ivy League professor to the White House staff when Nixon appoints Columbia's Arthur Burns, a conservative economist, as domestic policy adviser. The year is 1969, and what follows behind closed doors ...