Stephen Hess

Chronicles the role of Daniel Patrick Moynihan in the Nixon White house and the relationship between the two that grew from there, told by a member of the White House staff at the time and friend of both men.

Daniel Patrick Moynihan in the Nixon White House

The professor and the president

Michel Onfray

Marc Fumaroli

Marc-Antoine Brillant

Annick Steta

Charles Ficat

Mihaï De Brancovan

Jean-Luc Macia

Renaud Girard

Olivier Cariguel

Marin De Viry

Valérie Toranian

Franz-Olivier Giesbert

Jean-Paul Clément

Jean-Paul Enthoven

François Lorvoire

Robin Rivaton

Ioanna Kohler

Jacques De Saint Victor

Michel de Rosen

Pour se revivifier « Cosmos est mon premier livre », écrit Michel Onfray dans l’introduction de cette somme de mille pages, sous-titrée « Vers une sagesse sans morale ». « J’ai publié à ce jour quatre-vingts livres sur bon nombre de sujets : l’éthique, l’esthétique, la bioéthique, la politique, l’érotique, la religion, la psychanalyse [...], un chantier de dix tomes de contre-histoire de la philosophie, mais de fait, j’ai l’impression que Cosmos est mon premier livre. » Pour s’être frayé un chemin dans la philosophie contemporaine à grands coups de serpe contre les religions et les sous-produits idéalistes, déboulonnant les icônes et déterrant les penseurs inconnus, Michel Onfray, depuis plus de vingt ans, suscite avec la même force emballement et détestation. Cette fois, le ton change. « Il n’y est plus question, enfin, de penser contre ceci, contre cela ; pas davantage de vitupérer, d’agonir, de juger, de fulminer, ni même d’hédoniser aux dépens de quelque passion triste. Non, rien de réactif dans cette “ontologie matérialiste”, mais un plain-chant en faveur du monde, de la nature, de la lumière, de la beauté. [...] Ce livre, c’est un torrent pagano-mystique », écrit son premier éditeur, Jean-Paul Enthoven, qui nous décrit sa rencontre avec le philosophe normand et éclaire son parcours intellectuel d’une contre-histoire personnelle, à la fois critique et affectueuse. Michel Onfray honnit les religions et nous propose rien moins que le bonheur délivré de notre soumission aux trois monothéismes. Dans une France secouée par le terrorisme islamiste, cherchant à renouer de toute urgence avec une laïcité qu’on ne défendait plus que du bout des lèvres, la lecture de Cosmos rafraîchit, inspire et revigore. Autre lecture vivifiante, celle de Marc Fumaroli, qui nous entraîne à la découverte des origines de la République des lettres, cette communauté de savants qui incarna durant des siècles l’excellence philosophique scientifique et littéraire et qui fit de la France le centre rayonnant de la pensée jusqu’à la révolution française. Marc Fumaroli, même s’il déplore la perte de l’enseignement des humanités, refuse le déclinisme et invite la République à une réaction saine et, pourquoi pas, à une « République des lettres retrouvée pour mettre fin aux dysfonctionnements dans l’État et le système d’éducation »... Valérie Toranian

Michel Onfray. Pour une sagesse sans Dieu

Revue des Deux Mondes mars 2015

The period from Election Day to Inauguration Day in America seems impossibly short. Newly elected U.S. presidents have less than eleven weeks to construct a new government composed of supporters and strangers, hailing from all parts of the nation. This unique and daunting process always involves at least some mistakes—in hiring, perhaps, or in policy priorities, or organizational design. Early blunders can carry serious consequences well into a president's term; minimizing them from the outset is critical. In What Do We Do Now? Stephen Hess draws from his long experience as a White House staffer and presidential adviser to show what can be done to make presidential transitions go smoothly. Here is a workbook to guide future chief executives, decision by decision, through the minefield of transition. You'll have to start at the beginning, settling on a management style and knowing how to "arrange all the boxes." Something as seemingly mundane as parceling office space can be consequential—hence the inclusion of a proposed White House organizational chart and floor plans of the West Wing. What qualities are needed for each job, and where are the best candidates for those positions most likely to be found? How can you construct a cabinet that "looks like America"? What Do We Do Now? is your indispensable guide through the thicket of these decisions. There are small decisions, too. You'll have to pick a desk—photos of the choices are included. Which presidential portraits should hang in the Oval Office? Which ones have previous presidents chosen? And when it comes time to write an inaugural address, what should be the content, theme, and tone? It's all here in the presidential transition workbook—don't leave for Washington without it. This concise volume is sure to be a valuable resource for the president and team of advisers as they attempt to herd cats into an effective government. o W e Do Now? is alsis also a delightful read for anyone interested in exactly how one goes about being the president of the United States.

A Workbook for the President-Elect

What Do We Do Now?

This is the 30th anniversary edition of a book that was hailed on publication in 1966 as "fascinating" by Margaret L. Coit in the Saturday Review and as "masterly" by Henry F. Graff in the New York Times Book Review.The Constitution could not be more specific: "No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States." Yet, in over two centuries since these words were written, the American people, despite official disapproval, have chosen a political nobility. For generation after generation they have turned for leadership to certain families. They are America's political dynasties. Now, in the twentieth century, surprisingly, American political life seems to be largely peopled by those who qualify, in Stewart Alsop's phrase, as "People's Dukes." They are all around us?Kennedys, Longs, Tafts, Roosevelts.Here is the panorama of America's political dynasties from colonial days to the present in fascinating profiles of sixteen of the leading families. Some, like the Roosevelts, have shown remarkable staying power. Others are all but forgotten, such as the Washburns, a family in which four sons of a bankrupt shopkeeper were elected to Congress from four different states. America's Political Dynasties investigates the roles of these families in shaping the nation and traces the whole pattern of political inheritance, which has been a little considered but unique and significant feature of American government and diplomacy. And in doing so, it also illuminates the lives and personalities of some two hundred often engaging, usually ambitious, sometimes brilliant, occasionally unscrupulous individuals.

America's Political Dynasties

Whatever Happened to the Washington Reporters, 1978–2012, is the first book to comprehensively examine career patterns in American journalism. In 1978 Brookings Senior Fellow Stephen Hess surveyed 450 journalists who were covering national government for U.S. commercial news organizations. His study became the award-winning The Washington Reporters (Brookings, 1981), the first volume in his Newswork series. Now, a generation later, Hess and his team from Brookings and the George Washington University have tracked down 90 percent of the original group, interviewing 283, some as far afield as France, England, Italy, and Australia. What happened to the reporters within their organizations? Did they change jobs? Move from reporter to editor or producer? Jump from one type of medium to another—from print to TV? Did they remain in Washington or go somewhere else? Which ones left journalism? Why? Where did they go? A few of them have become quite famous, including television correspondents Ted Koppel, Sam Donaldson, Brit Hume, Carole Simpson, Judy Woodruff, and Marvin Kalb; some have become editors or publishers of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald, or Baltimore Sun; some have had substantial careers outside of journalism. Most, however, did not become household names. The book is designed as a series of self-contained essays, each concentrating on one characteristic, such as age, gender, or place of employment, including newspapers, television networks, wire services, and niche publications. The reporters speak for themselves. When all of these lively portraits are analyzed—one by one—the results are surprisingly different from what journalists and sociologists in 1978 had predicted.

Whatever Happened to the Washington Reporters, 1978-2012

"Drawing on personal interviews and original survey research, reveals the mindset of foreign correspondents posted in the United States from a wide range of countries, and examines how foreign reporting has changed over the past 20 years"--Provided by pub

Foreign Correspondents in the United States

Through Their Eyes

Americans often forget that, just as they watch the world through U.S. media, they are also being watched. Foreign correspondents based in the United States report news and provide context to events that are often unfamiliar or confusing to their readers back home. Unfortunately, there has been too little thoughtful examination of the foreign press in America and its role in the world media. Through Their Eyes fills this void in the unmistakable voice of Stephen Hess, who has been reporting on reporting for over a quarter century. Globalization is shrinking the planet, making it more important than ever to know what is going on in the world and how those events are being interpreted elsewhere. September 11 was a chilling reminder that how others perceive us does matter, like it or not. Hess seeks to answer three basic yet essential journalistic questions: Who are these U.S.-based foreign correspondents? How do they operate? And perhaps most important, what do they report, and how? Informed by scores of interviews and armed with original survey research, Hess reveals the mindset of foreign correspondents from a broad sample of countries. He examines how reporting from abroad has changed over the past twenty years and addresses the daunting challenges facing these journalists, ranging from home-office politics to national stereotypes. Unique among works on the subject, this book provides an engaging and humanizing "Day in the Life?" section, illustrating how foreign correspondents conduct their daily activities. This book continues the author's comprehensive Newswork series on the nexus of media, government, and politics. These five books, starting with The Washington Reporters (Brookings, 1981), have become valuable reference materials for all who seek to understand this intersection of journalism and government. Through Their Eyes furthers that rich tradition, making it essential and enjoyable reading.

What happens when a conservative president makes a liberal professor from the Ivy League his top urban affairs adviser? The president is Richard Nixon, the professor is Harvard's Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Of all the odd couples in American public life, they are probably the oddest. Add another Ivy League professor to the White House staff when Nixon appoints Columbia's Arthur Burns, a conservative economist, as domestic policy adviser. The year is 1969, and what follows behind closed doors is a passionate debate of conflicting ideologies and personalities. Who won? How? Why? Now nearly a half-century later, Stephen Hess, who was Nixon's biographer and Moynihan's deputy, recounts this fascinating story as if from his office in the West Wing. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (1927–2003) described in the Almanac of American Politics as "the nation's best thinker among politicians since Lincoln and its best politician among thinkers since Jefferson", served in the administrations of four presidents, was ambassador to India, and U.S. representative to the United Nations, and was four times elected to the U.S. Senate from New York. Praise for the works of Stephen Hess Organzing the Presidency Any president would benefit from reading Mr. Hess's analysis and any reader will enjoy the elegance with which it is written and the author's wide knowledge and good sense. -The Economist The Presidential Campaign Hess brings not only first-rate credentials, but a cool, dispassionate perspective, an incisive analytical approach, and a willingness to stick his neck out in making judgments. -American Political Science Review From the Newswork Series It is not much in vogue to speak of things like the public trust, but thankfully Stephen Hess is old fashioned. He reminds us in this valuable and provocative book that journalism is a public trust, providing the basic information on which citizens in a democracy vote, or tune out. — Ken Auletta, The New Yorker

The Professor and the President

This is the 30th anniversary edition of a book that was hailed on publication in 1966 as "fascinating" by Margaret L. Coit in the Saturday Review and as "masterly" by Henry F. Graff in the New York Times Book Review.The Constitution could not be more specific: "No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States." Yet, in over two centuries since these words were written, the American people, despite official disapproval, have chosen a political nobility. For generation after generation they have turned for leadership to certain families. They are America's political dynasties. Now, in the twentieth century, surprisingly, American political life seems to be largely peopled by those who qualify, in Stewart Alsop's phrase, as "People's Dukes." They are all around usKennedys, Longs, Tafts, Roosevelts.Here is the panorama of America's political dynasties from colonial days to the present in fascinating profiles of sixteen of the leading families. Some, like the Roosevelts, have shown remarkable staying power. Others are all but forgotten, such as the Washburns, a family in which four sons of a bankrupt shopkeeper were elected to Congress from four different states. America's Political Dynasties investigates the roles of these families in shaping the nation and traces the whole pattern of political inheritance, which has been a little considered but unique and significant feature of American government and diplomacy. And in doing so, it also illuminates the lives and personalities of some two hundred often engaging, usually ambitious, sometimes brilliant, occasionally unscrupulous individuals.

Stephen Hess

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