Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Federal Highway Act

"This nuanced, highly readable, and deeply informative book unpacks when and why presidential leadership matters by focusing on a single case (Highway Act) and a single president (Eisenhower) to help us see when the president was important in pushing the act through, and when other actors provided the hidden-hand leadership that led to success."—Michael A. Genovese, professor of political science and international relations at Loyola Marymount University, and author of The Modern Presidency: Six Questions That Define the Institution"This is an impressive study. Melding the best of biography, history, and political science, Charles Zug captures Dwight D. Eisenhower’s political philosophy and applies it to the formulation of one of postwar era’s most important legislative achievements. This richly detailed book takes readers inside the workings of the Eisenhower administration and the law-making warrens of Capitol Hill. With incisive analysis backed by meticulous research, Zug has produced a thought-provoking work on the president, Congress, and the genesis of the Federal Highway Act."—Yanek Mieczkowski, author of Eisenhower’s Sputnik Moment: The Race for Space and World Prestige"Although Eisenhower’s name is forever etched upon our interstate highway system, Charles Zug’s meticulous and myth-busting account of the making of the Federal Highway Act chronicles a far more complicated and captivating story, one that restores Congress to the center of the policymaking process and forces us to fundamentally rethink the presidential leadership of Dwight Eisenhower, who emerges from this richly rendered narrative as neither a Whiggish champion of congressional primacy nor a political maestro of ‘hidden-hand’ leadership. Deeply researched as well as engagingly written, this book is a must-read not only for those interested in the Eisenhower presidency or fascinated by transportation policy but for all Americans who care about the role of the presidency and Congress in our constitutional system of separation of powers."—Richard J. Ellis, author Old Tip vs. the Sly Fox: The 1840 Election and the Making of a Partisan Nation

• Foreword by Andrew RudalevigeAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Presidential Decisions1. Background and Context, 1787–19522. Presidential Initiative: Eisenhower’s Initial Forays into Highway Expansion, 1952–19543. The Clay Committee and the Development of Eisenhower’s Highway Program, 1954–19554. Congress Resurgent: The Defeat of the Eisenhower Highway Bill in 19555. The Final Push and Congressional VictoryConclusionNotesBibliographic EssayIndex