The Presidency of Joseph R. Biden

A First Historical Assessment

Julian E. Zelizer

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2026
• Print ISBN:
  9780691274799
  9780691274782
• eBook ISBN:
  9780691287348
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Political Biographies
• Index: History

Leading historians offer the first look at Biden’s four years in the White House

The Presidency of Joseph R. Biden presents a first draft of history by providing insights into how this one-term president fits within the broader historical forces shaping the United States in the twenty-first century. Acclaimed political historian Julian Zelizer brings together some of today’s leading scholars to give balanced and strikingly original assessments of the major issues of the Biden years, from education and reproductive rights to the economy, labor relations, climate policy, race, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the culture wars.

These incisive essays trace the full arc of Joe Biden’s presidency from its early successes to the setbacks that ultimately consumed it. His domestic legislative achievements were hailed by some as the most momentous of any American presidency since the Great Society while his foreign policy ably met the challenges posed by the nation’s great power rivals. Yet by late 2024, Biden’s legacy was in tatters, overshadowed by immigration, inflation, the war in Gaza, and the president’s obvious physical decline.

Written in a clear and accessible manner, The Presidency of Joseph R. Biden moves beyond the day-by-day journalistic coverage to provide the first comprehensive scholarly account of the Biden administration’s achievements and eventual downfall.

With contributions by Kathryn Cramer Brownell, María Cristina García, Joel K. Goldstein, Michael Kazin, Daniel C. Kurtzer, Joyce Mao, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Timothy Naftali, Ekaterina Pravilova, Noah Rosenblum, Paul Sabin, Timothy Stewart-Winter, Sean H. Vanatta, John Witt, and Mary Ziegler.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• 1. Trying to Save the Soul of America
• 2. The Red and the Blue Endure
• 3. Antagonists and Enablers: The Tragic Dance of Biden and the Supremes
• 4. Between the Nightmare and the Noble Dream: The Ideal of Department of Justice Independence in a Time of Hyperpartisanship
• 5. Checked Ambition: The Biden Economic Agenda
• 6. Unrequited Labor: The Biden Administration’s Failure to Win Over Working-Class America
• 7. Energy, Climate, and the Environment
• 8. After the Fall of Roe: The Biden Presidency and Reproductive Policy
• 9. Biden, Congressional Impasse, and the “Broken” U.S. Immigration System
• 10. Trans Rights and the Emerging Politics of Gender
• 11. The Biden Presidency and the Education Wars
• 12. The Equity President: Biden’s Reckoning with Race and the Nation
• 13. Invest, Align, Compete: Biden on China
• 14. Biden, Russia, and Ukraine
• 15. Biden and the Middle East: Legacy at a Crossroads
• 16. How Biden Failed to Understand the Modern Media Presidency
• 17. The Historic, and Consequential, Harris Vice Presidency
• 18. The Withdrawal
• Notes
• Contributors
• Index