New Books in Political Science What Does the American Presidency Mean? A Conversation with Richard Holtzman
May 5, 2026
Richard Holtzman, associate professor of political science who studies presidential rhetoric and symbolism. He argues for an interpretive lens on the presidency. Short segments examine limits of causal approaches, rhetoric as spectacle rather than persuasion, how methods shape what we study, and the broader relevance of meaning-making for executives worldwide.
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Expand Research Questions To Emotions And Symbols
- Broaden research questions beyond legal, political, or opinion metrics to include emotions, symbols, and everyday citizen reactions.
- Holtzman urges scholars to study how the presidency makes people feel and the myths and images that shape public understanding.
Finding Interpretivism After 9/11
- Holtzman recounts arriving at interpretivism through frustration as a grad student after 9/11.
- He wanted to analyze George W. Bush's Ground Zero speech's words and feelings, not public opinion numbers, which led him to interpretive methods.
Tulis Shows Presidency Is A Constructed Rhetorical Order
- Jeffrey Tulis's The Rhetorical Presidency is an interpretive bridge in presidency studies, highlighting how presidents shape rather than follow public opinion.
- Holtzman reads Tulis as showing a manufactured political order that centers the president through ideas and rhetoric.
