Review by Choice Review
Han and Heith offer an updated take on Doris Graber's original, important book on public opinion and the presidency, The President and the Public (1982). The new book, a useful supplement in a presidency course, is divided into four sections and contains 13 chapters from various authors. The sections cover how presidents use and are constrained by public support, by public opinion in policy development, and by public opinion in presenting their policies to the public, and more briefly, how former presidents use and are constrained by public opinion. The second and third sections are without question the strongest: the analyses offered are, as a rule, interesting and useful. The first section is weak for the reason Graber notes in her contribution to the book: given that the tie between public opinion and presidential support is tenuous and brief, all claims that public opinion helps or hinders presidents are problematic. Section four, by contrast, seems largely tacked on and unsystematic. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate through professional collections. A. L. Crothers Illinois State University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
