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The passage of the twenty-fifth amendment
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Lubot, Rebecca Caryn. The passage of the twenty-fifth amendment. Retrieved from https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3P55RNJ

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TitleThe passage of the twenty-fifth amendment
NameLubot, Rebecca Caryn (author); Greenberg, David (chair); McCormick, Richard L. (internal member); Lears, Jackson (internal member); Clemens, Paul (internal member); Baker, Ross (outside member); Rutgers University; School of Graduate Studies
Date Created2017
Other Date2017-10 (degree)
SubjectHistory, United States--Constitution--25th Amendment, Nuclear arms control--United States
Extent1 online resource (ix, 239 p.)
DescriptionThis dissertation is the first revisionist history of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, which established procedures for remedying a vice presidential vacancy and for addressing presidential inability. With the development of the atomic bomb came a concomitant increase in presidential power and a strong desire for stability at the top echelon of the United States government at all times. Traditional legal histories of the amendment argue that President John F. Kennedy’s assassination was both the proximate and prime factor in the development of the amendment in 1963, but they do not consider the pervasive nuclear anxiety inherent in American politics and culture during the Cold War that acquired additional urgency in the shadow of the Cuban missile crisis. Oral interviews of the amendment’s architect, Senator Birch Bayh, and other key actors – as well as close scrutiny of previously unexamined archives – offer new insight that nuclear anxiety influenced every stage of the legislative process. The role of anxiety, an amorphous concept, was complicated: while it pushed the process forward overall, it led to debate about specifics. With the amendment’s ratification on February 10, 1967, the nuclear anxiety of the era became ingrained in the U.S. Constitution itself, underscoring the fact that the Constitution is a living document reflecting the exigencies of the age as the framers intended. A study of the amendment during periods of heightened international tensions reveals that while nuclear anxiety contributed to the production of the amendment, it worked to suppress the invocation of the amendment in practice. With a goal of expanding the field of legal history by examining cultural and political factors, this dissertation argues that nuclear anxiety provides another important explanation for the incorporation of the amendment in the Constitution and identifies historical patterns useful to further reform the presidential succession system.
NotePh.D.
NoteIncludes bibliographical references
Noteby Rebecca Caryn Lubot
Genretheses, ETD doctoral
Persistent URLhttps://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3P55RNJ
Languageeng
CollectionSchool of Graduate Studies Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Organization NameRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
RightsThe author owns the copyright to this work.
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