While I was at the Clinton Institute, the good people at Routledge decided that Jeff Menne and I had something good in our book proposal. A contract was offered. Jeff increased our image allotment by fifty per cent. I shook my head over talk of royalties for a hardcover-only, priced-for-libraries edition. We said yes. I’m posting my signed contract to Jeff tomorrow. He’ll add his signature and we’ll be in business.

Sadly, a title change was a necessary part of the contract. Say goodbye to The Fictional Lives of American Presidents and hello to Cinema and the American Presidency, forthcoming in 2014. I may try to get the introduction to be titled, “Introduction: The fictional lives of American presidents,” if only because I really, really, really have grown attached to the phrase.

The table of contents:

Introduction Christian Long and Jeff Menne

Part 1: Early Cinema and the Presidency  1. The Role of Media in Presidential Elections Charles Musser  2. On Lincoln in D.W Griffith and John Ford Tom Gunning  3. “So Typically Southern…”: Abraham Lincoln and the Progressive Imaginary Dave Noon

Part 2: FDR and the Mediated President  4. The Talented Mr. Roosevelt Jennifer Fay and Scott Juengel  5. Vanishing Presidential Power in The President Vanishes, Jonathan Auerbach  6. The Beginning or the End of the Modern Presidency: Starring Harry Truman and the Atomic Bomb Isabelle Freda  

Part 3: Selling of the Postwar President  7. Clean Cuts: Kennedy Modernism on Screen J.D. Connor  8. LBJ and the Astronauts Jeff Menne  9. Nixon’s Impersonated Presidency Deak Nabers  10. Presidential Power and the Dark Side of George Lucas Michael Szalay  

Part 4: In the Wake of Reagan’s Hollywood Politics  11. Reagan’s Image and the Conservative Movement Susan Jeffords  12. Obama and the (Raced) Presidential Imaginary Diane Rubenstein

Part 5: The Spaces of the Presidency  13. Mrs. Smith Goes to Washington: Expanding Presidential Space, Exposing Presidential Self Jacqueline O’Connor  14. The Mysteries of the White House Christian Long  15. Afterword Dana D. Nelson