Synopses & Reviews
Read The Chronicle of Higher Ed Author Interview
In This Is Not a President, Diane Rubenstein looks at the postmodern presidency from Reagan and George H. W. Bush, through the current administration, and including Hillary. Focusing on those seemingly inexplicable gaps or blind spots in recent American presidential politics, Rubenstein interrogates symptomatic moments in political rhetoric, popular culture, and presidential behavior to elucidate profound and disturbing changes in the American presidency and the way it embodies a national imaginary.
In a series of essays written in real time over the past four presidential administrations, Rubenstein traces the vernacular use of the American presidency (as currency, as grist for popular biography, as fictional TV material) to explore the ways in which the American presidency functions as a "transitional object" that allows the American citizen to meet or discover the president while going about her everyday life. The book argues that it is French theory primarily Lacanian psychoanalysis and the radical semiotic theories of Jean Baudrillard that best accounts for American political life today. Through episodes as diverse as Iran Contra, George H. W. Bush vomiting in Japan, the 1992 Republican convention, the failed nomination of Lani Guinier, and the Iraq War, This Is Not a President brilliantly situates our collective investment in American political culture.
Review
"In a series of bravura performances, Rubenstein reads presidents through Baudrillard and Lacan, providing at once a narrative of the administrations and . . . the field's development over the past two decades."
-American Quarterly,
Review
"A provocative analysis of the place of the U.S. presidency in contemporary times. . . . Recommended."
-Choice,
Review
"In a series of bravura performances, Rubenstein reads presidents through Baudrillard and Lacan, providing at once a narrative of the administrations and . . . the field's development over the past two decades."
"A provocative analysis of the place of the U.S. presidency in contemporary times. . . . Recommended."
"Rubenstein is without rival in her brilliant use of psychoanalytic theory for political science. No one since Michael Rogin has written so incisively about the American presidency and American popular culture. This Is Not a President radically transforms one’s understanding of American political discourse."
Review
"Rubenstein is without rival in her brilliant use of psychoanalytic theory for political science. No one since Michael Rogin has written so incisively about the American presidency and American popular culture. This Is Not a President radically transforms ones understanding of American political discourse."
-Anne Norton,University of Pennsylvania
Synopsis
In This Is Not a President, Diane Rubenstein looks at the postmodern presidency from Reagan and George H. W. Bush, through the current administration, and including Hillary. Focusing on those seemingly inexplicable gaps or blind spots in recent American presidential politics, Rubenstein interrogates symptomatic moments in political rhetoric, popular culture, and presidential behavior to elucidate profound and disturbing changes in the American presidency and the way it embodies a national imaginary.
In a series of essays written in real time over the past four presidential administrations, Rubenstein traces the vernacular use of the American presidency (as currency, as grist for popular biography, as fictional TV material) to explore the ways in which the American presidency functions as a transitional object that allows the American citizen to meet or discover the president while going about her everyday life. The book argues that it is French theory primarily Lacanian psychoanalysis and the radical semiotic theories of Jean Baudrillard that best accounts for American political life today. Through episodes as diverse as Iran Contra, George H. W. Bush vomiting in Japan, the 1992 Republican convention, the failed nomination of Lani Guinier, and the Iraq War, This Is Not a President brilliantly situates our collective investment in American political culture."
Synopsis
Read The Chronicle of Higher Ed Author Interview
In This Is Not a President, Diane Rubenstein looks at the postmodern presidency -- from Reagan and George H. W. Bush, through the current administration, and including Hillary. Focusing on those seemingly inexplicable gaps or blind spots in recent American presidential politics, Rubenstein interrogates symptomatic moments in political rhetoric, popular culture, and presidential behavior to elucidate profound and disturbing changes in the American presidency and the way it embodies a national imaginary.
In a series of essays written in real time over the past four presidential administrations, Rubenstein traces the vernacular use of the American presidency (as currency, as grist for popular biography, as fictional TV material) to explore the ways in which the American presidency functions as a "transitional object" that allows the American citizen to meet or discover the president while going about her everyday life. The book argues that it is French theory -- primarily Lacanian psychoanalysis and the radical semiotic theories of Jean Baudrillard -- that best accounts for American political life today. Through episodes as diverse as Iran Contra, George H. W. Bush vomiting in Japan, the 1992 Republican convention, the failed nomination of Lani Guinier, and the Iraq War, This Is Not a President brilliantly situates our collective investment in American political culture.
About the Author
Diane Rubenstein is Professor of Government and American Studies at Cornell University, and the author of What's Left?: The Ecole Normale Supérieure and the Right.