Bitter Harvest identifies the principles governing Franklin Roosevelt's development and use of a presidential staff system and offers a theory explaining why those principles proved so effective. Matthew Dickinson argues that presidents institutionalize staff to acquire the information and expertise necessary to better predict the likely impact their specific bargaining choices will have on the end results they desire.

Once institutionalized, however, presidential staff must be managed. Roosevelt's use of competitive administrative techniques was particularly useful in minimizing his staff management costs, while his institutionalization of nonpartisan staff agencies provided him with the necessary bargaining resources.

Matthew Dickinson's research suggests that FDR's principles could be used today to correct the most glaring deficiencies of the White House staff-dominated institutional presidency upon which most of his presidential successors have relied.