Popular Carleton professor and political pundit Steven E. Schier has co-authored a new book on the 2016 presidential election, “The Trump Presidency: Outsider in the Oval Office” (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017), providing readers with a comprehensive introduction to the remarkable launch of the new administration following an election that stunned the world.
On Monday, Nov. 6 from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Weitz Center for Creativity Room 236, Carleton College will host a lively and frank conversation led by Schier, assessing this first year of the Trump administration. Copies of “The Trump Presidency,” co-authored with St. Mary’s College of Maryland professor Todd E. Eberly, will be available for purchase at the event.
Donald Trump’s stunning and surprising election to the U.S. presidency has shaken the political, academic, and journalistic worlds. No president has taken the oath of office with as little political experience. And his first few months in office have raised the central question: Can an outsider govern?
In ‘The Trump Presidency,” Schier and Eberly provide readers with an insightful look at the launch of the new administration. After briefly describing the Trump electoral victory, they provide critical insight into the Trump transition and media strategy, and relations with Congress as well as the challenges the new administration confronts on domestic and foreign policy. A final chapter describes the prospects for a presidency marred by missed opportunities in Congress, some setbacks in the courts, low popularity, and ongoing personnel drama. “The Trump Presidency” provides a succinct Trump-centric view of the American presidency and introduces students to all major aspects of the new administration.
John J. Pitney Jr. of Claremont McKenna College writes, “Since the moment that Trump claimed victory, political observers have said that America is in uncharted waters. Schier and Eberly provide an excellent chart of the early days of this unusual administration. Thoughtful, balanced, and politically savvy, this book carefully distinguishes the real from the fake, and the unprecedented from the conventional. At a time of partisan heat and intellectual confusion, it provides a temperate guide for the perplexed.”
Steven E. Schier is Dorothy H. and Edward C. Congdon Professor of Political Science at Carleton College, where he has taught for the last thirty-six years. Considered one of the nation’s foremost presidential scholars, he is the author or co-editor of 21 books including: “By Invitation Only: The Rise of Exclusive Politics in the United States” (2000), “You Call This an Election? America's Peculiar Democracy” (2003), and “Panorama of a Presidency: How George W. Bush Acquired and Spent his Political Capital” (2009). He is the editor of “The Postmodern Presidency: Bill Clinton's Legacy in American Politics” (2000), “High Risk and Big Ambition: The Early Presidency of George W. Bush” (2004), “Transforming America: Barack Obama in the White House” (2011), and co-editor of “The American Elections of 2008” (2009), “American Government and Popular Discontent: Stability Without Success” (2012) (also coauthored with Todd Eberly), and “The American Elections of 2012” (co-edited with Janet Box-Steffensmeier).
Schier was appointed a Fulbright Distinguished Professor of American Studies at Uppsala University in Sweden fromJanuary-June 2014. He often serves as political analyst for KSTP-TV in Minneapolis/St. Paul.
Todd Eberly is the Chair of the Political Science Department, an Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Policy, and Coordinator of the Democracy Studies program at St. Mary's College of Maryland.
This event is sponsored by the Carleton College Department of Political Science and the Carleton College Bookstore. For more information, including disability accommodations, call (507) 222-4117. The Weitz Center for Creativity is located at 320 E. Third Street in Northfield. For advance purchase of “The Trump Presidency,” visit online at www.carleton.bncollege.com.
