Drawing from an analysis of print and television reports and close to 200 interviews, Hertsgaard explores the relationship between the Reagan White House and the national press corps. His conclusion that Reagan effectively managed an ideologically hostile news establishment provides a provocative challenge to the widespread argument that a "liberal media elite" controls America's news.

This classic by a Pulitzer Prize winning historian traces the evolution of the presidency, with a particular focus on the growth of the office between the administrations of Franklin Roosevelt and Richard Nixon. Although written during the Vietnam War and the Watergate Crisis, Schlesinger's book still speaks to concerns about the modern presidency. In fact, Schlesinger, who died in 2007, argued that the administration of George W. Bush posed an even greater threat to the Constitutional limitations of the executive office than that of Richard Nixon.