Book Description

Government experts provide the first reference history of the Executive Office of the President from its establishment in 1939 through the Bush Administration. Eleven chapters analyze the concept behind the office, its organization and reorganization, and how it developed over the last 55 years in terms of the broad functions that it serves. Chapters offer a careful, dispassionate survey of the office in terms of budget, management, and personnel; economics; national security; science and technology; exigency and emergency; resources development; domestic policy planning; the office of the Vice-President; and reorganizations, presidential style, and staffing matters. This reference is enriched also by biographical profiles of important staff members in the office during the last half-century, descriptions of different agencies, a chronology, and a bibliography. Designed for political scientists, public administrators, and historians, this study is invaluable for students and scholars, policymakers and public administrators, governmental and non-governmental professionals. Government experts provide a thorough and detailed overview of the development of the Executive Office and its components, with related research references. Part I consists of nine authored chapters which explore the creation of the Executive Office, its organization and reorganization, and, within broad functional areas—including budgeting, management and personnel, economics, national security, science and technology, exigency and emergency, resources development, and domestic policy and planning—its primary agencies. Two additional chapters are devoted respectively to the White House Office and the Office of the Vice-President. Throughout these accounts, ample references provide guidance to relevant source materials and authorities. Part II includes profiles of the principal units of the Executive Office and biographical sketches of a large representative sample of the leaders of those units as well as the senior staff of the White House Office. A chronology of Executive Office organizational developments and statistical data, together with a comprehensive bibliography, further enrich this sourcebook, designed to assist the conduct of studies and research by interested readers in the fields of government and history.