GIFT BOOKS : Studying for the Presidency

During the 1992 Presidential campaign, candidate Bill Clinton’s battered leather briefcase always bulged with books. As a policy advisor and friend, I frequently added to the briefcase’s weight by giving Clinton books on economics and public policy. I also brought on the campaign plane mysteries to read for relaxation, and Clinton would always grab them. Eventually, my sharing of books with Clinton was noticed by the press--and I was dubbed, “the bookmobile.”

I have only given President Clinton two nonfiction books since he’s moved into the White House: Paul Kennedy’s “Preparing for the Twenty-First Century”--an impressive survey of trends in world economics and politics. and Richard Reeves’ profile of JFK in power, “President Kennedy.” This is the best study that I’ve read of what it’s actually like to be President.

My role as a giver of books to the current President clearly has a limited tenure, but as a service to other future political leaders I have put together a holiday gift basket of books for all those men and women who might aspire to be President. It is comprised of books that I have shared with Bill Clinton over the years, as well as books that I require of my Public Policy students at Occidental. It’s a weighty basket--but ideas do count as the recent election demonstrated, and being President is serious business.

PARTING THE WATERS: America and the King Years 1954-63 by Taylor Branch. This is the most brilliant history written to date of a grassroots political movement--in this case, the civil rights movement. The book has the sweep and narrative power of a great novel. Branch’s attention to detail allows the reader to understand the subtle interplay in American politics between outsiders and insiders, and the role that individual acts of courage and vision can sometimes play in movements for societal reform. The President had Branch help him with his inaugural address, and would like him to write the history of the Clinton administration. This is the one book that I have advised the President to give as a gift to all visitors to the White House, whatever the season. LEADERSHIP by James MacGregor Burns. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in 1979, this is the best book written on political leadership. Burns, a historian at Williams College, utilizes his knowledge of political history to illustrate and analyze different types of leadership and how power is exercised. THE DISUNITING OF AMERICA: Reflections on a Multicultural Society by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. This brief essay by the noted historian and former Kennedy speechwriter helps to put in historical perspective the current debate about ethnicity and the American identity. Schlesinger argues that it is the job of the President to try to unite Americans across class, race, and ethnic lines--no easy task in an immigrant-based society. THE PERMANENT CAMPAIGN by Sidney Blumenthal. The Presidency is not an appointed position. You have to run for the job, which usually means almost a lifetime spent in political campaigns. This work by the “New Yorker” Washington correspondent Sidney Blumenthal, one of the country’s most intelligent and insightful political journalists, is an essential primer in the modern political process. CHAIN REACTION: The Impact of Race, Rights and Taxes on American Politics by Thomas and Mary Edsall. This is the best book on how race colors national politics in the U.S. Written by one of the Washington Post’s top political reporters and his wife, it is an analytical study of domestic American politics over the past three decades. RETHINKING SOCIAL POLICY: Race, Poverty and the Underclass by Christopher Jencks. Northwestern University professor Christopher Jencks clean-headedly dissects both traditional liberal and conservative approaches to crime, welfare, affirmative action, and poverty and finds them wanting. His call for a less rhetoric-laden, more practical approach to these deep rooted problems should be read by all New Democrats, as well as by caring Republicans. THE DEBT AND THE DEFICIT by Robert Heilbroner and Peter Bernstein. A succinct primer on the difference between the Federal debt and the fiscal deficit--something that confuses most politicians, as well as most citizens. An admirable companion book is his wonderful history of economic ideas, THE WORLDLY PHILOSOPHERS. SECRETS OF THE TEMPLE-HOW THE FEDERAL RESERVE RUNS THE COUNTRY by William Greider. Every President must deal with the unelected head of the Federal Reserve and his relatively unaccountable power. This 1987 book by a former Washington Post reporter was the first to report on and analyze the inner workings of America’s national banking system. RIGHTEOUS PILGRIM-THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HAROLD L. ICKES 1874-1952 by T.H. Watkins. Historical perspective on the interplay of environmental ideas and power politics can be gained by reading this biography of FDR’s most controversial and effective Cabinet member, Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes, the preeminent Progressive of this century. COSTING THE EARTH-THE CHALLENGE FOR GOVERNMENTS, THE OPPORTUNITIES FOR BUSINESS by Frances Cairncross. Written by the Environmental Editor of “The Economist” magazine, this is a sensible discussion of the economic challenge of environmentalism. WALTER LIPPMAN AND THE AMERICAN CENTURY by Ronald Steel. The best book that I’ve read on American foreign policy. The most influential political columnist of the American Century, Lippman’s central role in debates about America’s world leadership spanned Woodrow Wilson’s administration to that of Lyndon Johnson. Understanding his life and thinking provides some of the historical perspective that a President needs to chart a course in the new post Cold War world.

To prepare a future President for international leadership, I would start with these essential books: LENIN’S TOMB: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire by David Remnick. First hand reporting by the Washington Post’s Moscow correspondent on the decay and fall of the Communist system in Russia. This is the best “you-are-there” book on Russia since John Reed’s classic TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD. It will help you understand the magnitude of the task that Yeltsin and other Russian reformers face in building a new civil society and a market economy. THE SEARCH FOR MODERN CHINA by Jonathan Spence. Yale history professor Spence has penned a lucid history of modern China--a country that will be a major economic and political force in the 21st Century--an epoch that might well be the Asian Century. THE ENIGMA OF JAPANESE POWER: People and Politics in a Stateless Nation by Karel van Wolferen. An instant classic on the inner workings of Japan’s political/industrial system, this book by a noted Dutch journalist should be required reading for American trade negotiators--and it should also be the President’s Christmas gift to the new American ambassador to Japan, Walter Mondale. UTOPIA UNARMED:The Latin American Left After the Cold War by Jorge G. Castaneda. A professor of economics and international affairs at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, analyzes the left’s failures south of the border and explores the prospects for building a mature and more friendly relationship with the Yanqui north in the post-Cold War era. TROPICAL GANGSTERS by Robert Klitgaard. A firsthand account by a young economist of foreign aid operations in equatorial Africa and why economic development is not easy and why some nations don’t make economic progress.

The only work of fiction that I’m including is LINCOLN by Gore Vidal. This historical novel depicts Lincoln’s ability to combine courage and statesmanship with a willingness to use power and to engage in pragmatic politics--all in an effort to preserve the Union.

Reading books, of course, is the easy part; running for and winning the job takes great stamina, commitment and ambition. Good luck and holiday greetings.