ABSTRACT

In Choosing Presidents, Novak uses the election of an American president as a means to dissect the symbols of our national life and politics, exposing many as distorted perceptions of American realities. This work is a guide to the complexities of electoral politics and a lasting contribution to our understanding of the presidency.The author is Michael Novak.

part One|53 pages

Priest, Prophet, King

chapter 1|3 pages

Symbolic Realism

chapter 2|6 pages

What Are Symbols?

chapter 3|3 pages

Who Are We?

chapter 4|4 pages

Unseen Power

chapter 5|10 pages

Egalitarian and King

chapter 6|3 pages

Five Elements of Symbolic Power

chapter 7|9 pages

Making the Most of Improbable Talents

chapter 8|7 pages

A Professional's Memo

chapter 9|6 pages

The Liturgy of Leadership

part Two|48 pages

Moralism and Morality

chapter 10|6 pages

Being Moral and Being Practical

chapter 11|6 pages

The Constituency of Conscience

chapter 12|5 pages

That Word "Moral"

chapter 13|13 pages

Vietnam: More Moral Than Thou?

chapter 14|6 pages

The Rise and Fall of Liberal Moralism

chapter 15|10 pages

Beyond Niebuhr: Symbolic Realism

part Three|57 pages

The Civil Religions of America

chapter 16|6 pages

The Nation with the Soul of a Church

chapter 17|12 pages

The Innocence Lingers On

chapter 18|8 pages

The Civil Religions

chapter 19|6 pages

Five Protestant Civil Religions

chapter 20|10 pages

High-Church America

chapter 21|13 pages

The Second Great Tradition

part Four|78 pages

Symbols of 1972

chapter 22|3 pages

Traditional Symbols

chapter 23|13 pages

New Hampshire Snows

chapter 24|11 pages

The Wallace Sun

chapter 25|7 pages

McCarthy in Illinois

chapter 26|20 pages

Sorting Out in Wisconsin

chapter 27|12 pages

Together with McGovern at the Garden

chapter 28|3 pages

The Shooting of Governor Wallace

chapter 29|7 pages

Eight Major Presidential Symbols

part Five|71 pages

A New and Dark Faith

chapter 30|6 pages

America as a Business

chapter 31|11 pages

Three Corruptions

chapter 32|12 pages

Reforming the Presidency

chapter 33|16 pages

The Necessity of Dirty Hands

chapter 34|16 pages

The Dark Night of Faith

chapter 35|8 pages

The New Dark Civil Religion

part Six|29 pages

Afterword

chapter 36|7 pages

Carter's Hidden Religious Majority

chapter 37|14 pages

Rival Visions of "Community," 1988

chapter 38|3 pages

Moiling, Muddling, and Malaise

chapter 39|3 pages

Miracle in the Desert