Crisis and Command: A History of Executive Power from George Washington to the Present
 ""…an eloquent, fact-laden history of audacious power grabs by American presidents going back to George Washington.""—New York Times Magazine ""Yoo is not content to merely argue that the president has the constitutional right to assume vast powers during times of crisis. He further insists that it is in the nation's interest that the president, and the president alone, do so."" — San Francisco Chronicle ""…Yoo recognizes Madison's truth, for he acknowledges 'the importance of practice as a source of constitutional meaning,' and he devotes most of his book to analyzing presidential practice and the steady growth of presidential power over the course of American history.""—The New Republic ""Crisis and Command is a carefully argued historical survey of the evolution of presidential power, particularly the power to make war. The book reveals how the Bush war on terror, far from overstepping constitutional bounds, was rooted in a tradition that reaches back to George Washington himself.""–Wall Street Journal ""…rollicking and thoroughly researched brief...""—New York Times Book Review ""…Yoo’s robust view of presidential power is well-known, any history of the presidency written by him might initially seem suspect and agenda driven. He realizes only too well that his book is apt to be read ""as a brief for the Bush administration’s exercise of executive authority in the war on terrorism."" But if it is a brief for an expansive understanding of presidential authority, it is a remarkably persuasive one.""—The National Interest""Those who know John Yoo only from the caricature painted by his critics will be gobsmacked to readCrisis and Command. It is not the work of some wild-eyed zealot bent on waging war on our civil liberties. Rather it is a careful, scholarly examination of the subject of presidential powers viewed through the prism of history. By focusing on how presidents from George Washington to George W. Bush have actually exercised their authority, especially in wartime, Yoo makes a compelling contribution to public understanding of this all-important topic. Far from a partisan polemic, it is a careful and measured work of scholarship that will have to be engaged by those on all sides of the issue.""—Max Boot, Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow for National Security Studies, Council on Foreign Relations; author ofThe Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American PowerandWar Made New: Technology, Warfare, and the Course of History, 1500 to Today