David Greenberg. (2016). Republic of Spin: An Inside History of the American Presidency. W. W. Norton & Company.

David Greenberg. 2016. Republic of Spin: An Inside History of the American Presidency. W. W. Norton & Company.

David Greenberg, Republic of Spin: An Inside History of the American Presidency. W. W. Norton & Company, 2016.

David Greenberg. Republic of Spin: An Inside History of the American Presidency. W. W. Norton & Company, 2016.

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   • bioText: David Greenberg is a historian of American politics and a professor of history and of journalism and media studies at Rutgers University. He is the author of the prize-winning Nixon's Shadow: The History of an Image, among other books. Currently a columnist for Politico, he has been an editor at Slate and the New Republic and has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Atlantic, and other popular and scholarly publications. He lives with his family in New York City.
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Republic of Spin

fullDescription

"A brilliant, fast-moving narrative history of the leaders who have defined the modern American presidency."—Bob Woodward

In Republic of Spin—a vibrant history covering more than one hundred years of politics—presidential 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 Reagan's 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 media—figures like George Cortelyou, TR's brilliantly efficient press manager; 1920s ad whiz Bruce Barton; Robert Montgomery, Dwight Eisenhower's 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 century's 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 limitations—its capacity not only to mislead but also to lead.

reviews

1. • premium: False
   • source: Christopher Buckley;National Interest
   • content: Greenberg is a terrific storyteller. . . . An education and an engrossing read.
2. • premium: False
   • source: Michael Beschloss;New York Times Book Review
   • content: Fine, nuanced.
3. • premium: False
   • source: H. W. Brands;Washington Post
   • content: Greenberg neatly weaves a history of public relations into his political tale.
4. • premium: False
   • source: Matthew Cooper;Washingtonian
   • content: This essential book is going to wind up on every politico's shelf.
5. • premium: False
   • source: Jeffrey Toobin, author of The Oath and The Nine
   • content: In Republic of Spin, David Greenberg opens a new and revealing window on the modern American presidency by showing how the effort to manipulate public opinion has long been a central obsession in the Oval Office. Vivid characters, some very famous and some obscure, bring this important story to life and enlighten us about what presidents can and cannot accomplish.
6. • premium: False
   • source: Daniel Okrent, author of Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition
   • content: Anyone wishing to understand how our politics evolved from the era of Teddy Roosevelt's bully pulpit to the exquisitely calibrated constructions of today's publicists, pollsters, speechwriters, and snakes needs to read Republic of Spin. David Greenberg's book is everything that a political history should be—vivid, comprehensive, and important.
7. • premium: False
   • source: Fredrik Logevall, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Embers of War
   • content: An utterly engrossing and deeply authoritative examination of spin and the American presidency—its origins, its vital role over the past century, its enduring importance. Greenberg's elegant narrative brings this history vividly alive, as he weaves individual lives and broader societal forces into a major reassessment of modern American political culture. Spin has always been a part of politics, and it always will be; read this gem of a book to find out why that is, and what it means for our democracy.
8. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     November 23, 2015
     In this underwhelming history of the modern presidency, Rutgers historian Greenberg (Nixon’s Shadow) examines the position through the lens of news management and image making. Starting his tale around 1900 with Teddy Roosevelt and ending with the Obama administration, Greenberg provides plenty of gritty details—based on deep and extensive knowledge—to back up his assertion that “just as rhetoric was an inherent part of ancient politics, spin is a permanent part of ours.” Remarkably un cynical, Greenberg takes the manipulation of language and news to be a necessary feature of presidential governance, even when, as he believes, it distorts the political process and “leaves an unpleasant aftertaste.” Unfortunately, like too many historians of modern America, he seems to think everything started at the dawn of the 20th century. An uninformed reader might come away believing that the Declaration of Independence didn’t address a “candid world,” Jefferson’s party didn’t put journalists and editors on its payroll, and Lincoln didn’t understand the reach of words. More importantly, Greenberg never clarifies for readers how political spin differs from, say, corporate public relations, and seems satisfied with stories about a single political office when there’s much more to say about the effect of spin on everything. Deeper analysis, improved context, and less narrative would help.

9. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     Starred review from October 15, 2015
     From William McKinley to Barack Obama, a prizewinning historian looks at the tortured marriage of public relations and the modern presidency. Woodrow Wilson loathed all the " 'campaign mummery' of shaking hands and sweet-talking supporters." Adlai Stevenson called merchandising candidates for high office "the ultimate indignity to the democratic process." Both can blame Theodore Roosevelt for transforming the presidency and for recognizing the power of "the bully pulpit" to shape and mobilize public opinion. Since Roosevelt, all aspirants to and occupants of the Oval Office have taken elaborate pains to construct and nourish their public images, carefully crafting their own versions of events and presenting them to voters as "truth-telling" or "transparency." Opponents reliably label their efforts as mere publicity, advertising, ballyhoo, news management, propaganda, or, in today's fashionable locution, "spin." Greenberg (History/Rutgers Univ.; Calvin Coolidge, 2006, etc.) cruises chronologically through more than 100 years of spin, packing his narrative with minibios and sharp commentary on the journalists, pundits, and intellectuals who've closely observed the spin machine through the years. He chronicles the succession of speechwriters, press secretaries, pollsters, admen, consultants, TV gurus, and campaign managers, each of whom gave the machine a distinctive whirl. And, of course, he assesses the presidents, gold-standard spinners like FDR, JFK, and Reagan, chief executives who were surprisingly good at it--Coolidge, Truman--some who were surprisingly bad--Harding, Wilson--and some, like Hoover, Johnson, and Carter, whose presidencies began well and then spun out of control. As Greenberg chronicles the evolution of spin, noting the technological innovations that have caused the machine to revolve ever faster, piling up colorful, informative stories about the notable spinmasters, charting the dizzying effect of the constant campaign and the supercharged executive on the voters, readers will wonder whether to cry at the implications for our republic or to simply laugh at the spectacle of it all. At once scholarly, imaginative, and great fun.

     COPYRIGHT(2015) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

10. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      November 15, 2015
      

      Greenberg (history, political science, Rutgers Univ.; Nixon's Shadow) has written an extensive, insightful account of the image-making machinery entailed in the modern American presidency. The author's work is a sobering one that in part takes readers on a journey, at times appearing as a downward spiral, from the Greek's reliance on rhetoric to the U.S. culture of apparent fascination with and acceptance of the modern spin machine and the proverbial selling of presidents and presidential candidates like a bar of soap. From Theodore Roosevelt's "bully pulpit" to Barack Obama's triumph with Twitter and videographers, Greenberg's study offers a front-row seat (one that's not for the faint of heart) in the theater known as American politics. This work is similar to Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death, in which the line between fact and fiction is blurred, and the White House's West Wing becomes The West Wing. We now have, and have had for some time, according to Greenberg, the image-is-everything presidency. Spin, he argues, is here to stay; it is neither our savior nor a sinister force eating away at our democratic soul. VERDICT This revealing account of politics as image in U.S. presidential culture should be read by any student of the American presidency and American politics.--Stephen Kent Shaw, Northwest Nazarene Coll., Nampa, ID

      Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

11. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      December 15, 2015
      Suspicious of political spin, the intentional effort to shape the public's impression of candidates and policies? Worries about what was formerly euphemized as publicity, public relations, and communications are nothing new, as this fascinating history of presidential spin reveals. Starting with William McKinley, Greenberg parallels the techniques devised by spin doctors with intellectuals' critiques of their methods. Pivoting on a key questionDoes spin work?Greenberg describes the variable fortunes of presidents since McKinley to produce favorable news. Theodore Roosevelt set an example of how a president could influence public opinion, while Wilson illustrated spin's limits when he failed to build popular support for the League of Nations. As he recounts each president's adoption of an innovation, such as Coolidge and radio, FDR and pollsters, Eisenhower and television, Greenberg wryly notes that critics' fears of a public manipulated and deceived have not consistently been realized. Presidents up to Barack Obama, Greenberg avers, have learned that public opinion is harder to mold than than image makers, wordsmiths, and focus-group maestros think. Balanced, interesting, and timely for the 2016 campaign, Greenberg's work will entice any reader following media and politics.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

popularity

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"A brilliant, fast-moving narrative history of the leaders who have defined the modern American presidency."—Bob Woodward

In Republic of Spin—a vibrant history covering more than one hundred years of politics—presidential 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 Reagan's 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 media—figures like George Cortelyou, TR's brilliantly efficient press manager; 1920s ad whiz Bruce Barton;...

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