Michael P. Riccards

Riccards and Flagg examine in detail the development of Franklin Delano Roosevelt from a young politician in Albany to assistant secretary of the Navy to governor of the state of New York. The volume shows how Roosevelt developed his rhetorical skills, his art of manipulation and coalition building, and his incredible bond to the American people through the Depression and World War II. As commander in chief, he mastered the leadership skills that made him a great military leader and a political leader who established himself as a paramount figure using control of the Democratic party. In the process, he solidified the party as a long-lasting coalition that set the United States as a world empire.

? This first study on Woodrow Wilson as the commander in chief during the Great War analyzes his management style before the war, his diplomacy and his battle with the Senate. It considers the war as representing the collapse of Western traditional virtues and examines Wilson's attempt to restore them. Emphasizing the American war effort on the domestic front, it also discusses Wilson's rise to power, his education, career, and work as governor as necessary steps in his formation. The authors deal honestly and critically with the racism that characterized this brilliant but limited career.

This collection of sixty short stories chronicles the adventures and memories of an Italian grandpa living in the twentieth century in Northern New Jersey. A gardener who reached age 86, Grandpa is a paragon of fairness, honesty and decency in a world of con men, bigots, and hustlers. In the process he meets some major personalities of his time: Einstein, DiMaggio, and Sinatra among others. Each story tells a tale of how he deals with human problems and how a moral can emerge out of experience, morals that influence all of us in our own lives. He comes to teach the importance of nature in our mechanized world, the strong ties of family, the need to value service over money, and most important the centrality of love above all else.Grandpa was a real individual who lived for over a half century in Madison, New Jersey, a town in the midst of the transition from a small rural town to a major affluent commuter borough into Manhattan. With these developments in the town and more importantly in the United States, he retains his basic values that guide his life and once guided our parents and grandparents.The compiler is his grandson, Michael P. Riccards, a former college president of three colleges, and also a noted presidential historian. His collaborator is Cheryl Flagg, whose background is in higher education.

This is the fourth volume of short stories that deal with the complexities of life, love, and disappointment that grandpa and all of us face. It includes four verse plays on the topics of God and the forces of evil. Especially enthralling is Riccards' response to Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot.

What makes a great president? Certainly leadership, accomplishments, crisis management, political skill, character, and integrity are part of the equation, but the great presidents have something more. They not only govern well, but are part of something lasting; their presidencies influence the thoughts and beliefs of generations. These powerful men are not flawless leaders, they have made mistakes and miscalculations, but in the end their decisions have changed the nation and often the world. In Destiny’s Consul: America’s Greatest Presidents, presidential scholar Michael P. Riccards provides a concise introduction to the lives, presidencies, and personal qualities of ten great individuals whom Riccards argues are our greatest presidents. Organized chronologically, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, and Ronald Reagan are shown to truly be great. It will be of interest to anyone interested in the presidency of American history.

This study is a comprehensive history of the papacy, the oldest elective office in the world, and how it has managed over the centuries the most complex voluntary association of faith. The book argues that in fact through most of its existence, the papacy has adapted managerial models of the secular world and applied them to the Catholic Church. Since its emergence from the Jewish synagogues to a persecuted minority in the Roman Empire to becoming the established religion of the West, the Church and the papacy engaged the world on its own terms. It is only after the Council of Trent did the Church become somewhat more divorced and estranged from the environment around it. This book focused on those changes and on the great popes across the centuries who reformed and altered Catholicism. Special attention is directed to Gregory I, Innocent I, Innocent III, Pius IX, Leo XIII, Pius XI, Pius XII, John XXVII, Paul VI, and John Paul II. The conclusion is that the persistence of the Catholic Church for so many centuries was due to its ability to preserve the faith, but re-establish its forms and managerial class.

In the first major, in-depth study since World War II, Michael P. Riccards provides a narrative history of the U.S. presidency, showing how the chief executives and their personalities shaped national events. Riccards provides coverage of each administration from TR to George W., with extended treatment of the more important presidents. Though there is some biographical material about each chief executive, the focus is on the issues, policies, legislative achievements and foreign policy decisions for each administration. Riccards freely offers his assessments of where each president's strengths and weaknesses were, and where they triumphed and failed during their terms in office.

In the first major, in-depth study since World War II, Michael P. Riccards provides a narrative history of the U.S. presidency that is also an invaluable reference. Volume One covers the presidency from its creation to its major crisis in the Civil War and the transitional presidency of McKinley. Volume Two Continues the history up to the presidency of George Bush. In Volume Two, he provides coverage of each administration and extended treatment of the more important presidents. Though there is some biographical material about each chief executive, the focus is on issues, policies, legislative achievements and foreign policy decisions for each administration.