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| Crisis and Command |
| Author: John Yoo Hardback: 544 pages List Price: $19.77 Availability: In Stock at Barnes & Noble |
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Synopsis:
An American President faces war and finds himself hamstrung by
a Congress that will not act. To protect national security, he
invokes his powers as Commander-in-Chief and orders actions
that seem to violate laws enacted by Congress. He is excoriated
for usurping dictatorial powers, placing himself above the law,
and threatening to “breakdown constitutional safeguards.”
One could be forgiven for thinking that the above describes
former President George W. Bush. Yet these particular attacks
on presidential power were leveled against Franklin D. Roosevelt.
They could just as well describe similar attacks leveled against
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson,
Abraham Lincoln and a number of other presidents challenged
with leading the nation through times of national crisis.
However bitter, complex, and urgent today’s controversies over
executive power may be, John Yoo reminds us they are nothing
new. In Crisis and Command, he explores a factor too little
consulted in current debates: the past. Through shrewd and lucid
analysis, he shows how the bold decisions made by Washington,
Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, and FDR changed more than just
history; they also transformed the role of the American president
The link between the vigorous exercise of executive power and
misunderstood. He makes the case that the founding fathers
deliberately left the Constitution vague on the limits of
presidential authority, drawing on history to demonstrate the
benefits to the nation of a strong executive office.
An American President faces war and finds himself hamstrung by
a Congress that will not act. To protect national security, he
invokes his powers as Commander-in-Chief and orders actions
that seem to violate laws enacted by Congress. He is excoriated
for usurping dictatorial powers, placing himself above the law,
and threatening to “breakdown constitutional safeguards.”
One could be forgiven for thinking that the above describes
former President George W. Bush. Yet these particular attacks
on presidential power were leveled against Franklin D. Roosevelt.
They could just as well describe similar attacks leveled against
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson,
Abraham Lincoln and a number of other presidents challenged
with leading the nation through times of national crisis.
However bitter, complex, and urgent today’s controversies over
executive power may be, John Yoo reminds us they are nothing
new. In Crisis and Command, he explores a factor too little
consulted in current debates: the past. Through shrewd and lucid
analysis, he shows how the bold decisions made by Washington,
Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, and FDR changed more than just
history; they also transformed the role of the American president
The link between the vigorous exercise of executive power and
misunderstood. He makes the case that the founding fathers
deliberately left the Constitution vague on the limits of
presidential authority, drawing on history to demonstrate the
benefits to the nation of a strong executive office.
| New for 2010 |
We're waiting for the Kindle edition. John Yoo's legal and
constitutional intellect is so powerful that the left wants to
prosecute him (and others) for giving President Bush legal
advice. Note that Congress time and again refused to pass a
law outlawing waterboarding as "torture" and instead let the
current President issue an executive order about it. By putting
Presidential actions in context throughout our history, all of us
can benefit from his scholarship. ****__S. Sweeney
"Yoo’s robust view of presidential power is well known, any
history of the presidency written by him might initially seem
suspect and agenda driven. He realizes only too well that his book
is apt to be read “as a brief for the Bush administration’s exercise
of executive authority in the war on terrorism.” But if it is a brief
for an expansive understanding of presidential authority, it is a
remarkably persuasive one.” *****__The National Interest
constitutional intellect is so powerful that the left wants to
prosecute him (and others) for giving President Bush legal
advice. Note that Congress time and again refused to pass a
law outlawing waterboarding as "torture" and instead let the
current President issue an executive order about it. By putting
Presidential actions in context throughout our history, all of us
can benefit from his scholarship. ****__S. Sweeney
"Yoo’s robust view of presidential power is well known, any
history of the presidency written by him might initially seem
suspect and agenda driven. He realizes only too well that his book
is apt to be read “as a brief for the Bush administration’s exercise
of executive authority in the war on terrorism.” But if it is a brief
for an expansive understanding of presidential authority, it is a
remarkably persuasive one.” *****__The National Interest
About The Author
John Yoo received his B.A., summa cum
laude, in American history from Harvard
University. Between college and law
school, he worked as a newspaper
reporter in Washington, D.C. He received
his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he
was an articles editor of the Yale Law
Journal. He then clerked for Judge
Laurence H. Silberman of the U.S. Court
of Appeals of the D.C. Circuit.
Yoo clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas
of the U.S. Supreme Court. He served as
general counsel of the U.S. Senate
Judiciary Committee from 1995-96.
From 2001 to 2003, he served as a
deputy assistant attorney general in the
Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S.
Department of Justice, where he worked
on issues involving foreign affairs,
national security and the separation of
powers.
Yoo has published articles about foreign
affairs, international law and
constitutional law in a number of the
nation's leading law journals. He is the
author of The Powers of War and Peace:
The Constitution and Foreign Affairs
after 9/11 (University of Chicago Press,
2005), and War by Other Means: An
Insider's Account of the War on Terror
(Grove/Atlantic 2006).
John Yoo received his B.A., summa cum
laude, in American history from Harvard
University. Between college and law
school, he worked as a newspaper
reporter in Washington, D.C. He received
his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he
was an articles editor of the Yale Law
Journal. He then clerked for Judge
Laurence H. Silberman of the U.S. Court
of Appeals of the D.C. Circuit.
Yoo clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas
of the U.S. Supreme Court. He served as
general counsel of the U.S. Senate
Judiciary Committee from 1995-96.
From 2001 to 2003, he served as a
deputy assistant attorney general in the
Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S.
Department of Justice, where he worked
on issues involving foreign affairs,
national security and the separation of
powers.
Yoo has published articles about foreign
affairs, international law and
constitutional law in a number of the
nation's leading law journals. He is the
author of The Powers of War and Peace:
The Constitution and Foreign Affairs
after 9/11 (University of Chicago Press,
2005), and War by Other Means: An
Insider's Account of the War on Terror
(Grove/Atlantic 2006).
