War Powers: How the Imperial Presidency Hijacked the Constitution

A striking assessment of how the Constitution has been stretched, distorted, and violated to accommodate the drive to empire from Jefferson's day to our own

An insightful analysis and rousing history, War Powers examines a fundamental question in the development of the American empire: What constraints does the Constitution place on our territorial expansion, military intervention, occupation of foreign countries, and on the power the president may exercise over American foreign policy?

Worried about the dangers of unchecked executive power, the Founding Fathers deliberately assigned Congress the sole authority to make war. But the last time Congress declared war was on December 8, 1941, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Since then, every president from Harry Truman to George W. Bush has used military force in pursuit of imperial objectives, while Congress and the Supreme Court have virtually abdicated their responsibilities to check presidential power. In vivid detail, Peter Irons recounts this story of subversion from above, tracing presidents' increasing willingness to ignore congressional authority and even suspend civil liberties.

Drawing on congressional hearings, Supreme Court opinions, law-review commentary, media reports, and scholarly accounts, legal historian Irons takes us up to the recent preemptive invasion of Iraq, offering a necessary account of our most pressing contemporary constitutional crisis.