This new text analyzes the development of the presidency as the dominant political institution in the United States and raises questions about its future relevance.

In this history of the U.S. executive branch from the framing of the Constitution to the Biden administration, author Wilbur C. Rich illuminates the transformation of the presidential role by a variety of extra-constitutional, non-legal forces, technology, and social changes.The book highlights how some presidents nevertheless have managed to maintain relevancy and dominance by adapting to these changes or by introducing changes of their own.

For undergraduate students and researchers of presidential history and American political development, this expansive historical overview of the executive branch in America makes a strong case that the significance of the American presidency has declined dramatically—and perhaps irrevocably—in the modern presidency.