Republic of Spin: An Inside History of the American Presidency

In Republic of Spina vibrant history covering more than one hundred years of politicspresidential historian David Greenberg recounts the rise of the White House spin machine, from Teddy Roosevelt to Barack Obama. His sweeping, startling narrative takes us behind the scenes to see how the tools and techniques of image making and message craft work. We meet Woodrow Wilson convening the first White House press conference, Franklin Roosevelt huddling with his private pollsters, Ronald Reagans aides crafting his nightly news sound bites, and George W. Bush staging his Mission Accomplished photo-op. We meet, too, the backstage visionaries who pioneered new ways of gauging public opinion and mastering the mediafigures like George Cortelyou, TRs brilliantly efficient press manager; 1920s ad whiz Bruce Barton; Robert Montgomery, Dwight Eisenhowers canny TV coach; and of course the key spinmeisters of our own times, from Roger Ailes to David Axelrod.

Greenberg also examines the profound debates Americans have waged over the effect of spin on our politics. Does spin help our leaders manipulate the citizenry? Or does it allow them to engage us more fully in the democratic project? Exploring the ideas of the centurys most incisive political critics, from Walter Lippmann and H. L. Mencken to Hannah Arendt and Stephen Colbert, Republic of Spin illuminates both the power of spin and its limitationsits capacity not only to mislead but also to lead.