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Political Science Resources: Presidency of the United States

Find information about political science and government.

The Presidency Defined

"The president of the United States is the head of state of the U.S., the chief executive of the federal government, and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. The United States was the first nation to create the office of president as the head of state in a modern republic." (from usa.gov).

Books about the presidency

Physical books in the library:

eBooks:

Internet Resources

  • American Presidency Project (UC Santa Barbara) - this growing site offers documents, statistics a media archive and analysis about the presidents of the United States.
  • Presidential Library Explorer - this National Archives resource offers access to digitized records from presidential libraries. This is a great place to find primary source materials held in the various presidential libraries. "This visualization presents the holdings of the Presidential Libraries in descending order from the library with the largest number of textual records to the smallest."

Executive Branch Resources

  • The White House
  • Executive Office of the President - The EOP is made up of the president's closest advisors and includes the National Security Staff, the Office of Management and Budget and the Vice President's Office and many other entities.
  • The Cabinet - "The Cabinet includes the Vice President and the heads of 15 executive departments — the Secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs, as well as the Attorney General."