The Impossible Presidency: The Rise and Fall of America's Highest Office

Event Details

American Forum

PBS World Channel National Broadcast: Virginia, Oct. 8, 2017/Nationally, Oct. 11, 2017

In The Impossible Presidency Jeremi Suri  charts the rise and fall of the American presidency from what he argues was the limited role envisaged by the Founding Fathers to its current status as the most powerful job in the world. He argues that the presidency is a victim of its own success and the vastness of the job makes it almost impossible to fulfill the expectations placed upon it. Presidents today must react to a truly globalized world in a twenty-four-hour news cycle. Sure argues that there is little room left for bold visions. Professor Suri is the Mack Brown Distinguished Professor for Global Leadership, History, and Public Policy at the University of Texas at Austin and an author or co-editor of books on contemporary politics and foreign policy including Sustainable Security: Rethinking American National Security Strategy and Liberty's Surest Guardian: American Nation-Building from the Founders to Obama. In 2007 Smithsonian Magazine named him one of America's "Top Young Innovators" in the Arts and Sciences. He also contributed an essay for the Miller Center’s First Year 2017 project about President Clinton’s first year. A book signing will follow his appearance.