Keeping a Finger on the Button

Rebecca Lubot's book provides a vital understanding of the nation's anxieties around the most important presidential power of all—the unilateral launch of nuclear weapons. She provides valuable insight into the too-often-overlooked complexities of the 25th Amendment —the nation's playbook of how Doomsday might someday unfold—while raising critical questions about its existing ambiguities that should worry America's policymakers.

--Garrett Graff, Pulitzer Prize finalist for Watergate: A New History

Keeping a Finger on the Button compellingly uncovers an underappreciated story about the Constitution and the presidency. Combining impressive research and sharp analysis, this is a timely and fascinating read.

--John Rogan, Fordham Law School

The Twenty-Fifth Amendment has once again returned to the center of our political debates. Rebecca Lubot has delivered an authoritative, original, detailed account of how this vital part of the Constitution came into being—and how it continues to play out in our politics today. Keeping a Finger on the Button sheds needed light on presidential power in an era of global tension and democratic crisis.

-- David Greenberg, Pulitzer Prize finalist for John Lewis: A Life

Drawing on unmined archives and original interviews, Rebecca Lubot tells the story of how US lawmakers grappled with issues over presidential succession and inability and vice-presidential vacancy and ultimately ratified the Twenty-Fifth Amendment. She argues that nuclear anxiety played a crucial role in the development of the amendment and its aftereffects, showing how politics and culture reflected this anxiety, and multiple administrations intensified it. She also offers solutions to the amendment’s gaps. As the threat of accident, miscalculation, or madness looms, never has a book on the intersection of presidential continuity and the nuclear age been more necessary.

Rebecca C. Lubot is CEO and founder of Lubot Strategies. She earned her doctorate in US history from Rutgers University, a Master of Science in the theory and history of international relations from The London School of Economics, and a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Boston University.