Primarily a study in American public law with an approach partly historicial, partly analytical, and critical. The central theme is the development and contemporary status of presidential power, and of the presidential office under the Constitution.

I. Conceptions of the office. "Executive power": a term of uncertain content ; Sources of the framers' ideas of executive power ; The Philadelphia Convention and "The Federalist ; The presidency from Washington to J.Q. Adams ; From Jackson's revolution to Lincoln's "dictatorship" ; The presidency occulted, Congress dominant -- II. The apparatus of the presidency. Who may be president, the ban on third terms ; The electoral college, dangerous breakdowns ; Another danger spot, presidential disability ; Oath of office, compensation, the vice-president ; The oath again, Johnson's impeachment -- III. Administrative chief. "Office" and appointment thereto ; The president as supervisor of law enforcement, the cabinet ; The removal power: the Myers and Humphrey cases ; The administrative setup and the problem of reorganization ; A new problem in American government: disloyalty in the bureaus ; Executive immunity versus legislative prerogative -- IV. Chief executive. The president as law interpreter, delegated legislative power, appropriation acts, concurrent resolutions ; Military power in law enforcement: president versus Congress ; Martial law under the Constitution, habeas corpus ; Emergency powers of the president: the "stewardship theory" ; Pardons, amnesties, reprieves -- V. Organ of foreign relations. National sovereignty in the foreign field, Congressional independence and judicial abstention ; "Sole organ of external relations": Hamilton versus Madison ; Congressional collaboration and control: recognition ; Executive of the law of nations: presidential warmaking ; President versus Senate, "Personal agents," "Executive agreements" ; American participation in the United Nations -- VI. Commander-in-chief in wartime. Lincoln and the "commander-in-chief" clause ; Delegated war power: the two World Wars ; Presidential lawmaking, the war agencies, labor, "indirect sanctions" ; The "stewardship theory" in total war ; Martial law, military government, laws of war ; The president as supreme commander of the forces -- VII. Legislative leader and "institution." The Constitutional basis and "modus operandi" of presidential leadership, from Roosevelt I to Roosevelt II ; Roosevelt II and Congress, the law of ebb and flow ; Ancillary weapons of presidential leadership, the veto power ; Collateral factors of presidential leadership, patronage, filibusters, judicial review ; The president as "dictator" versus the president as leader: a new type of cabinet ; "The institutionalized presidency.".