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Is America headed for tyranny? It is when the other side's in charge...

A review of The Once and Future King: The Rise of Crown Government in America. The presidency's power is increasing ominously – although perhaps not quite as much as this book thinks

23 August 2014

9:00 AM

23 August 2014

9:00 AM

The Once and Future King: The Rise of Crown Government in America F.H. Buckley

Encounter Books, pp.424, £18.99, ISBN: 9781594037191

For the last 50 years Americans have been decrying the increase of presidential power whenever the party they oppose is in office.  Republicans hated to see Kennedy and Clinton throwing their weight around, while Democrats deplored the ‘imperial presidency’ of Nixon and Reagan. F.H. Buckley, a Canadian law professor now working in Virginia, explains why presidents have become so powerful.

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Available from the Spectator Bookshop, £18.99. Tel: 08430 600033. Patrick Allitt is Cahoon Family Professor of American History at Emory University, Georgia.

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