Product Description
A fresh look at the only president to serve nonconsecutive terms.

Though often overlooked, Grover Cleveland was a significant figure in American presidential history. Having run for President three times and gaining the popular vote majority each time -- despite losing the electoral college in 1892 -- Cleveland was unique in the line of nineteenth-century Chief Executives. In this book, presidential historian Henry F. Graff revives Cleveland's fame, explaining how he fought to restore stature to the office in the wake of several weak administrations. Within these pages are the elements of a rags-to-riches story as well as an account of the political world that created American leaders before the advent of modern media.
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Customer Reviews (16)

The President Who is Counted Twice
Grover Cleveland, by Henry F. Graff

Henry F. Graff is a professor emeritus of history at Columbia University and wrote "The Presidents", a reference work. Cleveland was President when Congress still dominated national affairs. He was the only Democrat twice elected in the 19th century after Andrew Jackson. Cleveland was born in 1837, the beginning of the modern world as far as the practical use of science goes. Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren marked "the rising power of the people" (`Prologue'). The first two chapters tell about Cleveland's early life and society in the mid 19th century. Cleveland devoted himself to his work as a lawyer, was elected Sheriff and Mayor of Buffalo. Cleveland was elected Governor of NY (Chapter 3). "Civil Service Reform" attacked the political parties (which were self-financed) to benefit the newly powerful capitalist class (p.33). Cleveland backed an income tax (p.35) and vetoed bills to benefit localities. Cleveland conformed to the wishes of business (p.36). He suggested regulations on corporations to protect stockholders (p.40). As governor he preserved the Adirondacks (p.42).

Chapter 4 tells of Cleveland's nomination to the Presidency "firmly backed by the reformers and the sound=money men" (p.49). The two party platforms were similar (p.54). The Pendleton Act made political bosses dependent on wealthy industrialists for funds (p.58). Cleveland's connection with Maria Halpin was a scandal (p.60). Was it a "solitary incident" (p.62)? But James G. Blaine had newer scandals: "Belshazzar's Feast" (p.65). President Cleveland picked men from railroads and big business, not friends of farmers and laborers or small businesses (p.68). Cleveland was the first president who married in the White House, not a church (p.79). Cleveland was "often blind and deaf to public sentiment" (p.84). Were "most people" really ignorant about the tariff question (p.87)?

Chapter 6 covers Cleveland's re-election loss. He recognized how the rich and powerful were trampling citizens beneath an iron heel (p.96). Cleveland moved to New York and joined a law firm who worked for J. P. Morgan. President Harrison passed the highest tariff in American history (p.100). Economic distress was causing new political alliances (pp.101-102). The Farmer's Alliances called for a graduated income tax, government ownership of the railroads, and end to national banks (p.103). Cleveland denounced the crushing of the steel worker's union in Homestead Penna (p.109). Cleveland won another term and the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress.

Chapter 8 notes that Cleveland's first year was marked by the Depression of 1893 (p.114). Cleveland's response was a Gold Standard and repeal of the Silver Purchase Act. Cleveland's deal to buy gold from a banking syndicate caused people to consider him a tool of Wall Street (p.115). Social Darwinism led to oppression at home and imperialism abroad (p.122). The 1896 party convention picked William J. Bryan "For the People". Censorship by the newspapers forced Bryan to invent the "whistle stop" campaign to speak to the people (p.129). Workingmen were threatened with the loss of their jobs is Bryan won, "McKinley won convincingly".

Cleveland and his family settled in Princeton NJ and became part of that University's community (p.132). He earned money by writing articles for magazines. He also worked for insurance companies (p.135). He grew ill, and died in 1908. The `Epilogue' says Cleveland is little-remembered today (p.137). His "cleansing honesty" was a tool to give power to the corporate class in owning political parties, a legacy that continues. Graff thinks he should be better remembered than for two non-consecutive terms of office. In the 19th to the 20th century state governors were not allowed to succeed themselves. This enhanced democracy by letting the Legislature predominate. So too for the Federal Executive. Corporations want a strong President to dominate the country for their benefit. Cleveland's policies has justified his obscurity, he didn't "promote the general welfare" (p.85).

Good on personality and politics, weak on economics
This book describes the life and character of Grover Cleveland - and addresses the latter more clearly than the former.Cleveland comes across as uninspiring, but absolutely honest.He was such a workaholic that he refused to attend baseball games during the Presidency, thinking it a waste of the people's time.While Cleveland was President, there was no White House staff to speak of; he spent much of his time meeting with job seekers, and held regular office hours for the citizenry.He lost the 1888 election in part because he did not consider campaigning for the office to be part of his job description.In short, there was nothing modern about Grover Cleveland.

Graff also adequately explains Cleveland's sex scandal (in which he was accused of fathering a child out of wedlock; he supported the child, but paternity was unclear) and his three elections.

However, Graff fails to explain the 1893 depression which has tainted Cleveland's reputation. What did Cleveland fail to do, and how serious were these mistakes?Did the depression cure itself, and if so how?All these questions glide past Graff.

Our 22th and 24th President.
I think there is another book out there on Grover Cleveland called an honest president.Here Graff just confirms why Grover was a straight shooting honest politician.He made the comment when faced with controversy with "Lets tell the truth".What a novel way for a politician.This is why Cleveland appeared on three presidential ballots, and was elected twice.People believed in him and his standards.
Graff does a excellent job of detailing the 22th and 24th President.The book flowed easily, and I found myself interested throughout the book.Maybe it was because of the character of Cleveland.The nation needs leaders like him now.

A very good short biography of an overlooked president.Graff sticks to the details but makes them interesting.

Solid, short biography of Grover Cleveland
If you want great detail on the presidents, this book series, "The American Presidents," will not be for you.If, however, you would like to get better introduced to some of the Presidents with some quick reads, this series could be very attractive. "Grover Cleveland," written by Henry Graff, is one book in the series. At the outset, I will say that this is a nice introduction to Grover Cleveland; if you want lots of detail, though, this book will not be for you.

That said, this is up to the usual dependable quality of works in this series. The book begins by placing the Cleveland family in context (e.g., I had never guessed that one of Cleveland's predecessors was a founder of Cleveland, Ohio, after whom the city was named!). The story of Cleveland's political career began in earnest when he served as Mayor of Buffalo, NY.This served as a launching point for his accession as Governor of New York.In the latter role, he distinguished himself as a "reformer."

After that, as a result of a confluence of events, he was nominated for President as a Democrat. While running for office (not that candidates did much in the way of campaigning), it came out that Cleveland may have fathered a child out of wedlock.Indicative of Cleveland's reputation, when asked what his "handlers" should do, he said, "Tell the truth." Rather refreshing!

Once elected, he served as a competent president, with some accomplishments in his first term.He was defeated when he ran for re-election, with Benjamin Harrison ousting him from office.However, four years later, he was re-elected to serve the White House. There were many challenges in his second term, some beyond his control.There was also the medical problem that was kept from public eye.

The book winds down by talking of his life after the presidency. This 138 page volume gives a nice glimpse of Grover Cleveland, his presidency, his times, and his accomplishments.For what it is, it does well.Recommended for those who want a brief introduction to the presidents generally and Cleveland specifically.

Cleveland remembered
Grover Cleveland's reputation among the presidents has risen over the past few years and Henry Graff's contribution to the American Presidents' series is welcome, though it is not a not terribly revealing study. Cleveland was known for his integrity but hardly remembered as a risk taker of any length as he served twice in the presidency. His years in Washington were solid, if not overly productive.

This series about the U.S. presidents is designed to give a brief overview of the subects covered. This is not the best book in that series, but it is informative in many ways. The author tends to have more of a bent for covering the election process and the style of life exhibited by President Cleveland. Indeed the three elections in which Cleveland ran for president were all fairly close and worth a look, but I would like to have seen more on Cleveland's legacy and how it affected future presidencies. Graff's "Grover Cleveland" is a pleasant read, however. ... Read more

Product Description
Politics was in Benjamin Harrison's blood. His great-grandfather signed the Declaration and his grandfather, William Henry Harrison, was the ninth president of the United States. Harrison, a leading Indiana lawyer, became a Republican Party champion, even taking a leave from the Civil War to campaign for Lincoln. After a scandal-free term in the Senate-no small feat in the Gilded Age-the Republicans chose Harrison as their presidential candidate in 1888. Despite losing the popular vote, he trounced the incumbent, Grover Cleveland, in the electoral college. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Another brief bio in the American President series
The American Presidents series is a nice set of short bios of many of our Presidents. Most are well done, providing brief entree to the lives and performance of our chief executive. This volume examines Benjamin Harrison, the grandson of President William Henry Harrison and one of those who became president while winning fewer popular votes than his opponent.

The book begins with his youth and his Civil War experience. He was one of the many Republican presidents in the latter part of the 19th century who had served during that bloody conflict. He entered the bar in 1854 and married Caroline. His law business languished; he became interested in politics. Thus began his career, although he was not always successful in his elections. The war intervened, and Harrison became an officer. After the war, his legal career became lucrative. However, politics beckoned and he became a figure in Republican politics in Indiana.

He served in a variety of roles, before being nominated for President in 1888. He won by collecting more electoral votes--but fewer popular votes--than the incumbent, Grover Cleveland. His presidency was a vigorous one--both domestically and in terms of foreign policy. He hewed to a strong tariff policy, but one made more flexible for bilateral negotiation with other countries. He was open toward labor and was dismayed by the withdrawal of voting rights for southern blacks and fought hard (and, in the end, unsuccessfully) to address that and restore voting rights. In foreign policy, with James G. Blaine as his secretary of State, he played a strong hand, becoming very much involved in development and implementation of foreign policy.

He did not triumph in his quest for reelection, as Grover Cleveland won back the presidency. Thereafter, he became once more a high profile attorney. The book does a nice job of depicting his final years and some internal family turmoil.

Another good entry in the series. For me, I prefer longer and more detailed biographies, but this will serve well those who prefer something accessible and brief.

A shining example of what courage can do
Sadly for Benjamin Harrison he is either remembered for being sandwiched by Grover Cleveland or for being the grandson of a president. Charles Calhoun does a great service by demonstrating how Harrison was a hands on, hardworking individual who did more in one term than Cleveland did in two. He is presented as the rare break in the laize-faire Presidents of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries who dared not to buck the power of congress.

Calhoun does a remarkable job demonstrating that Harrison is a man who worked for all he got in life and never took anything for granted. He was the last president until JFK to pay more than lip service to African-American and he was aman who while holding to his beliefs, was fair minded enough to try and see the other side.In some sense it is a shame that he never served that second term. It would be easy to see he could have done better than Cleveland.

Activist President in a Contentious Political Era
Benjamin Harrison, like several other presidents during the post-reconstruction, gilded age, served only four years as president. He was also only one of three presidents--the second at that time--to win election while losing the popular vote to Grover Cleveland in 1888. He was nonetheless a rather activist chief executive, securing important, or at least controversial, passage of legislation addressing the tariff, the currency, and regulation of the emerging corporate "Trusts". Harrison also endeavored, less successfully, to pass more robust election reform for African Americans in the South. While seeking the maintenance of a protective tariff for American industry and laborers, Harrison nonetheless also sought lower barriers for some imports as a means of increasing the country's exports. This limited "free trade" reciprocity with the countries of Latin America was rescinded by Grover Cleveland and the congress that succeeded Harrison, but serves as a model, for good or for ill, of the more globally oriented country and economy that would reflect later years and presidents.

Harrison's legislative and executive activism, combined with sectional and economic divisions, however, spelled doom for Harrison's, and the Republican Party's, fortunes in the off-year elections of 1890 when the Democratic Party swept to landslide control of congress. While Harrison successfully fought off the mechanizations of long time Republican leader and his own Secretary of State James G. Blaine for renomination in 1892, Harrison went on to not only lose the presidential contest to the man he had defeated four years earlier, Grover Cleveland, but also lost his wife, Caroline, to complications from Tuberculosis, weeks before election day. Harrison's last two years in office witnessed the infamous killing of Indians at Wounded Knee, which ultimately proved to be the closing event of the Indian Wars. In Harrison's final months, the economic elite--including American business owners--revolted against the royalty who governed the Hawaian islands, spawning the Harrison administration to prepare for the annexation of the future 50th state. The annexation of Hawaii was negated by Cleveland and the new congress, however, when concerns over American involvement in the "revolution" surfaced.

Harrison returned, but did not retire to, his family home in Indianapolis, where the former president again took up the practice of law. As an attorney, Harrison represented the Latin American country of Venezuela in a losing cause with Great Britain over the proper delineation of the former colony's land boundaries. Harrison did not go out gracefully in a political sense. He resented his eventual Republican successor, William McKinley, for having allowed himself to be nominated in 1892 at the Republican convention. Harrison also later opposed McKinley's policies in the Phillipines and American expansion (despite his administration's support for annexing Hawaii) policies more generally, and after 1893, did not campaign actively for his party or its presidential candidates. Nor did Harrison go out gracefully on the domestic front, at least from the persective of his two children, as the former president remarried his late wife's niece, Mary "Mamie" Dimmick, who had long served as an aid and companion to Harrison while his wife Caroline lived (although no valid evidence existed of an affair between the two during those years). The marriage alienated Harrison from his son Russel and daughter Mary. Harrison had another daughter, Elizabeth, through Mamie but would die five years later, in 1901, from pneomonia.

Calhoun does a good job bringing Benjamin Harrison and his times to life, portraying the post-reconstruction, gilded age as more politically intriguing and contested than normally regarded, at least in comparison to the ideological struggles of the Civil War era that preceded it and the progressive-New Deal era that succeeded it. Calhoun could probably have provided greater insight, particularly as to its geographical aspect, on the electoral upheaval in 1890 when the Democratic Party returned to power in greater numbers than it had witnessed since the time of Andrew Jackson. But Harrison's evaluation of the electoral results--that they represented more of a hyccup in electoral fortunes than a long term realignment--ended up being born out by the equally cataclasmic Republican victories in 1894 and 1896 and the long Republican hegemony from McKinley to Taft.

A little known activist President
I learned something from this book.I did not actually know too much about Ben Harrison but this short biography sure did teach me something about him.Harrison was a one term President who actually accomplished something in his four years.He fought the free silver coinage act, passed the Sherman antitrust act, lowered tariffs, but did not extinguish them, and worked for voting rights for black Americans.He also did alot of his own foreign relations, since his Secretary of State Blaine was constantly ill.He was a diligent hard worker who would shame some of our lazier presidents.

Due to all this activism, Harrison lost the mid term Congressional elections, and ultimately his office.He didn't seem to mind, because he thought he would be happier back home in Indianapolis.I enjoyed the author talking about Harrison's personal life.He married again after he left the White House.A nice biography of a little known President.

BH
BH and I share the same fraternity, so he is high on my list.Brief book, but a great example of a President overlooked due to his era. ... Read more

Product Description
James K. Polk was a shrewd and decisive commander in chief, the youngest president elected to guide the still-young nation, who served as Speaker of the House and governor of Tennessee before taking office in 1845. Considered a natural successor to Andrew Jackson, 'Young Hickory' miraculously revived his floundering political career by riding a wave of public sentiment in favor of annexing the Republic of Texas to the Union. Shortly after his inauguration, he settled the disputed Oregon boundary and by 1846 had declared war on Mexico in hopes of annexing California. The considerably smaller American army never lost a battle. At home, however, Polk suffered a political firestorm of antiwar attacks from many fronts. Despite his tremendous accomplishments, he left office an extremely unpopular man, on whom stress had taken such a physical toll that he died within three months of departing Washington. Fellow Tennessean John Seigenthaler traces the life of this president who, as Truman noted, 'said what he intended to do and did it.' ... Read more

Customer Reviews (28)

Interesting profile of one of your lesser known "great" presidents
James Polk is often listed with the "near great" category of U.S. Presidents. It is ironic that so little has been written about him given that he probably did more in four years as President than any other man who has held the office. This is a decent examination of his time in office and offers a solid background of the interesting characters he came across.I think it is safe to say he was the last Jacksonian era president and was surrounded by those who would play key roles in the run up to the Civil War.

All in all not a bad book. Not great, but given the lack of materials on James Polk, I doubt there is much better out there.

Save us your politics Mr. Seigenthaler.
This is a solid overview of the Polk Presidency, with an emphasis on "overview." This is to be expected from a work of only 150+ pages. I bought the book at the Library of Congress and paid $7.00 more than here on Amazon. I was drawn to the title by the "They Might Be Giants" song about President Polk, with the great chorus containing his designation as "Young Hickory, Napoleon of the Stump."

One part of this book that was unnecessary was Mr. Seigenthaler's attempt to inject his view of modern politics into a history of President Polk. Quips on "homophobia," "the religious right," "the Vietnam War," "The Iraq War," and the "Bush War Doctrine" abound. One would have hoped that the late Arthur Schlesinger would have edited these out, but perhaps his role as "general editor" did not entail such detail.

Even with these complaints, it is worth the read.

Surprising President
James Polk was more successful than anyone would expect, given that so little is known about him.this book covers the highlights.It's well written and a quick read.Not all the detail some would like, but a good overview and entertaining too.

One of the better presidents--but not so well known
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. is the overall editor of the "American Presidents" series. This features short biographies of American presidents, their backgrounds, their accomplishments (or lack thereof), and their post-presidency lives.The purpose of this series, in Schlesinger's words (Page xvi): "It is the aim of the American Presidents series to present the grand panorama of our chief executives in volumes compact enough for the busy reader, lucid enough for the students, authoritative enough for the scholar."


Nicknamed "Little Hickory," after Andrew Jackson, as his political career matured, James K. Polk is routinely judged to be one of the better American presidents.However, for the most part, he is little known to most Americans.This book provides a basis for understanding why his reputation among historians is so positive. The author, John Siegenthaler, insists that (Pages 1-2): "In the nineteenth century, only Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, and Abraham Lincoln would wield the power of the office of chief magistrate as effectively."

The book discusses his family background and his youth.He had some serious medical problems, leading to surgery in a time where surgery was not far from butchery. He was intellectually rigid, not very imaginative, was incapable of thinking outside the box.Yet he was talented and determined to achieve his goals.

Early in his career, "Old Hickory" and Polk became allies.It was a relationship that would redound greatly to Polk's benefit. He was a firm Democrat, in Jackson's tradition. In the 1820s, he was elected to the House of Representatives. After Jackson's accession to the Presidency, Polk served as one of his champions in Congress, eventually becoming Speaker of the House.

Then, he returned to Tennessee to run for Governor.He triumphed.However, after this, his political luck disappeared, as he became a two time loser. In the run-up to the presidential race in 1844, his only desire was to become the Vice-Presidential nominee of the Democratic Party. He became the first "dark horse" candidate to be nominated as President (the machinations are worth reading!) and then elected to the highest office in the land.He had promised to serve only one time and listed 4 goals that he intended to achieve, including the admission of Texas into the Union.

After many struggles and much pain, he succeeded.However, the tough years in the White House had an effect on him, and he was dead shortly after his term ended.

This book is a good read; it is relatively brief (156 pages of text); it lays out why he is rated so highly, although one can surely disagree with his positions.I would recommend this highly for what it is--a brief introduction to a person who is rated as one of our better presidents.

When presidents want war
How does one properly define greatness in a leader?This is the overwhelming question that emerges when reading John Seigenthaler's gracefully written and thorough book on Polk.For almost 60 years now, presidential scholars have consistently ranked Polk as great or near-great.The assessment seems to be based primarily on the fact that Polk accomplished all four aims on which he campaigned--lowering internal tariffs, establishing a national treasury, securing Oregon from Britain, and wresting California from Mexico.But is success in achieving political goals itself enough to establish presidential greatness?What if the goals themselves aren't particularly praiseworthy?

Styled "young Hickory" because he was the heir apparent to Andrew Jackson, Polk was a curious political mix of populism and imperialism.Like his mentor Jackson, he seems genuinely concerned to protect the laborer and yeoman from big money industrialists and private bankers.But he also bullied one nation (Britain) and provoked a war with another (Mexico) to extend the nation's borders to the Pacific coast.No other US president has been as open and successful a proponent of Manifest Destiny.

Like most wartime presidents, Polk discovered that his own war consumed an inordinate amount of his time and energy and generated a great deal of criticism.It's not clear if the cause of the war was legally justified.Depending on how one interpreted disputes over the border separating Mexico and the US, the event that sparked the war--a Mexican assault on a US patrol--might or might not have been justified.But Polk seized the opportunity to send in the cavalry.

Whigs and others were horrified by what they saw as Polk's crass war-mongering for land.Newly-minted congressman Abraham Lincoln spoke against it (and this probably cost him re-election).So did literary luminaries such as Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson.k(Others, such as Walt Whitman, agitated for annexing the whole of Mexico.)Many of the officers who served in the war, including Robert E. Lee and Winfield Scott, thought it an unjust one.Moreover, the war had a huge price tag in lives:13,000 casualties, the vast majority of them caused by illness.But when it was over, Polk had extended the borders of the country north and west, making the nation truly continental.The spoils from the war were larger than even the Louisiana Purchase.

Does this make Polk a great president?Viewed from a purely pragmatic perspective, perhaps.Viewed from the viewpoint of empire, undoubtedly.But viewed from a humanitarian or democratic perspective?The question is an open one, and it's to Seigenthaler's credit that he raises it in his excellent little book.

In addition, Seigenthaler provides enlightening glimpses into Polk the man and the president.Polk underwent a horrific operation when he was a teenager that probably left him sterile and may have contributed to his early death just three months after leaving office.Polk pledged himself to serving but one term, and could have taken a strong and no-risk stand against slavery.But he consistently side-stepped the issue during his term.His wartime territorial gains, however, only heated up the national debate about the extension of slavery.Apparently, Polk was one of the hardest-working presidents we've ever had, rarely leaving the White House.He was also the first president to keep a detailed daily journal.All in all, the portrait that comes through is of a dedicated, driven man.But a great president? ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (7)

A gem by a master historian
Professor Robert Dallek's HARRY S. TRUMAN is an illuminating and exhilarating read both for those deeply steeped in the Truman story and for those to whom Truman is a little-known figure. Dallek employs politics as the underlying theme that traces both Truman's career and the volatility of an American public that, not infrequently, can swerve far off the course of common sense and of appreciation for the real-world complexities of both domestic change and international vital interests.Dallek's succinct essay provides me valuable insights into the current Tea Party aberration.

Biographer Dallek, who has exhibited keen insights into the personalities and politics of FDR, Nixon, JFK, and LBJ, and Reagan, brings similar acumen to assessing Truman-- the man, the politician, and the president. As a teenager, I stayed up late watching the 1948 election in which Truman confounded the professional pollsters.I am familiar with many of the two dozen books upon which Dallek depends for many of his core facts and anecdotes, including McCullough's TRUMAN, Hamby's MAN OF THE PEOPLE: A LIFE OF HARRY S. TRUMAN,George H. Gallup's THE GALLUP POLL, 1935-1971, and Merle Miller's PLAIN SPEAKING: AN ORAL BIOGRAPHY OF HARRY S. TRUMAN.

I have taught Truman in a college course for nearly twenty years. I am astonished by how accurately Dallek, in 153 pages, synthesizes many complex events. I feel humbled at how often Dallek provides a succinct factual and political insight that had escaped me in my 60+ years of learning about Truman. Most important, Dallek provides a comprehensive, credible assessment of a man and president who, too frequently, has been misunderstood and, years ago, trivialized.

Truman, during his initial decades, seemed a most unlikely person ever to earn a Time cover story, much less the American presidency. His early adult years could be considered a failure, except for his distinguished WW I military service. His love of history, biography, and politics commenced at an early age.His association with Tom Pendergast obliged him to engage in distasteful patronage, while maintaining his personal financial integrity. His improbable ascent from being `Pendergast's boy' in the U. S. Senate to the White House came from his political loyalty, his conscientious work ethic that, among other things, saved the U. S. billions in military contract waste, and from his own personal integrity.

As Dallek illustrates, Truman was no saint, except when it came to personal financial scrupulousness and to women--his wife and mother in law seemed as much comfort to him as was Mary to Abraham Lincoln.Truman often felt frustration. At times he confined this to his diary or to letters that he wrote and then never mailed (his strong hatreds included General McArthur and Richard Nixon). On occasion, when he expressed this anger publicly (his letter to the music critique who panned his daughter's singing is a classic example), Truman diminished his stature and effectiveness.

From an early age, Truman appreciated the nature of politics. During a troublesome period of his presidency, he wrote his daughter that an effective president needed to be "a liar" and a "double-crosser." [Were these qualities he had learned from observing FDR in action?] What comes through clearly in Dallek's account is Truman's basic decency. Despite his many downs and ups, Truman always had a capacity swiftly to get back on track. He also was a quick learner, as evidenced from how he handled his presidency, after the initial freshman months.

Dallek describes several of Truman's core visions. From the outset of his presidency, he sought to rejuvenate the New Deal program. Then, and after the 1948 election, he was stymied both by the mood of the country and by the conservatism of Congress. Several of his boldest moods were a mixture of politics and personal beliefs: the recognition of Israel; his fight against John L. Lewis and his veto of the Taft-Hartley bill, and his Executive Order desegregating the military.

Since Gallup Polls commenced in 1935, no president, including Nixon, has so consistently scored as low as Truman during office. Truman departure from the White House in 1953 was lamented by few. In a brief epilogue, Dallek describes why, nearly sixty years later, Truman is ranked among America's near-great presidents. His Cold War actions, in retrospect, are now generally applauded. Especially after Watergate, his personal integrity became warmly applauded. His concerns for the average American were addressed in subsequent legislation, from LBJ and, most recently, Obama. He was faced with some of the most vexing domestic and international problems that ever confronted an American president. Most historians now agree that Harry `The Buck Stops Here' Truman served his country uncommonly well.

HARRY S. TRUMAN is part of The American Presidents series, initially edited by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. and now by Sean Wilentz. So far I have only read one other book in this series: Charles Peters' LYNDON B. JOHNSON, which I also found superb (see my Amazon review).

A brisk biography
Robert Dallek is a biographer of books on Lyndon B Johnson and John F Kennedy. In his latest offering he turns his attention to Harry S Truman.

Truman was in the unenviable position of taking the US Presidency in 1945 after the death of Franklin Roosevelt. Roosevelt was almost universally loved and one of the most respected men in the world and Truman was never going to live up to the expectations that Roosevelt had set.

This is an interesting book as it felt like Dallek wasn't trying that hard to write a good and interesting book. He makes the observation that Truman should be regarded as one of the great Presidents but doesn't do much to really back this claim up except to give a sometimes unflattering portrait of the man and his woeful approval rating.

The book is very short for one of Dallek's biographies as LBJ was 396 pages and JFK was 838 pages long yet Truman was 184 pages. One of the grest Presidents would deserve more than this.

My thoughts are that Truman was an average leader who didn't seem to get the respect of the public and really came off as ordinary in this biography. Seemed to be a nice man but not a great leader.

Worth a read if you want a snapshot biography of Truman but other than that, I would be looking at some other more extensive biography if you want to know more about him.

Bad reading of a good book
Unfortunately, the reader, William Dufris, is apparently too young to have been aware of who was who in this book produced by Macmillan Audio. On disc one, the name of Chiang Kai-Shek (and then Mrs. Chiang Kai-Shek) is repeatedly pronounced as Chey-ang...(as in Chey-enne).On disc two, one finds David Lilienthal's name turned into Liliental, followed by Bernard Baruch, pronounced as Baroosh each time.After that, I couldn't continue -- the audio version was ruined for me.

I am surprised that no one at Macmillan Audiobook cared enough about the production of Dallek's book to either encourage the use of a name pronunciation dictionary for someone apparently too young to remember those major people on the world scene, or didn't check to see if Mr. Dufris knew what he was doing before letting him go on with the reading.As a commercial audiobook firm, Macmillan has fallen down on its responsibility to the listening public.

Good Biography of Truman but perhaps a bit too short
It goes without saying that the best biography of Harry Truman is the one by David McCullough. However Robert Dallek does a good job of creating an interesting brief bio of Truman that focuses almost exclusively on his presidency. While this is a very interesting aspect of Truman's life and as would be the case in any presidential biography of key importance, Dallek doesn't do what other authors have done in this series and try to paint a portrait of the person who sat in the chair.

While he makes the argument that Truman was a near great president very little attention is given to what made him the man he was.Much attention is given to Truman's modest upbringing yet few details are provided. There is the famous line about Truman which goes, he is the most complex simple man who ever lived and Dallek does a good job in capturing that aspect. Still I would have enjoyed reading more about Truman the man and how that helped to shape Truman the president. Still, I recommend this book to anyone interested in one of our most fascinating presidents!

Another fine book in the American Presidents series.
Dallek summarizes the Presidency of Give Them Hell Harry Truman.Much has been written about this man, but unlike many who have held the office of President of the United States, Harry Truman was indeed one of the middle class.He was raised and worked on a farm, owned and worked a retail hat shop, and become a judge in middle life.Harry was also loyal to his friends, regardless of whether they were machine politicians.There are many things to show how Truman was truly a member of the population who voted for him.When he assumed the Presidential office, he did his best and achieved many things.His leadership helped America confront the Cold War with the Soviet Union.

Dallek does a nice job with this short summary of Truman's leadership.The intro started off slow, but this was a nice read on a truly great man. ... Read more

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"The American presidency . . . is merely a way station en route to the blessed condition of being an ex-president."
—John Updike

Customer Reviews (8)

Excellent book -- if a mite biased
Our American presidents had lives before and after their terms in office -- something we often forget, or just plain don't think about. Leonard Benardo and Jennifer Weiss have brought these "other lives" into sharp relief in a most engaging and fact-filled book.

The former presidents' financial situations -- often precarious -- after leaving office are addressed, as are how they dealt with the need to continue feeding their families, paying the mortgage, and the like, in the years after the White House. Before presidential pensions were established, some few former presidents were fortunate enough to be well-to-do; some had to take to writing or public speaking to raise needed funds -- Ulysses S. Grant and Harry S Truman come to mind. A few pursued ways of making money that may have demeaned their reputations. And a few (you may be surprised which ones) wound up either cash-poor or downright destitute.

Also outlined in detail are the various presidential libraries established by former chief executives in recent decades, and their attempts to burnish, or, in some cases, revive, their "legacies" of office. Public service and humanitarianism as rendered by former presidents also play a major part in the book.

And this last is the reason that I gave the book four stars instead of five. Benardo and Weiss have done an excellent job of researching and arranging their material, and of dramatizing it to make it interesting to the average reader who is not a professional "historian." But their effort is marred somewhat by their all-too obvious political bias in favor of liberal Democrats and against conservative Republicans. For example, they seem to be especially enamored of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton; on the other hand, they give Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush the backs of their hands in no uncertain terms. This tends to hold true of their dealings with most presidents throughout our history. Anyone will have political views and leanings, but it seemed to me that the authors could have done a better job of keeping theirs out of a book about all our presidents.

Having said that, I still believe that this is an excellent book, which will give the average reader much fascinating information he or she probably did not know before, about the men who led our country.

Fascinating Take on our Ex-Presidents
Citizen-in-Chief does a great job at examining an untold part of American History, what happens to ex-Presidents. In our media saturated age we still see and hear every movement and utterance of any ex-president who cares to make one.What this book does is to share with us what also happened to those surviving presidents who lived before the modern age and what they did.Most amazing is how some men were of means and how some suffered financially.

I really cared for the thematic tone of the book where we see such areas as diplomacy and business and libraries.Also of tremendous interest is the deep examination of recent presidents and what they did from the redemption plan of Richard Nixon to the high dollar speeches of Reagan, Bush and Clinton.I was also fascinated by the high dollar value of the Presidential museum's which seem to be soaring with each and every President.The idea of creating a central museum and it's counterpoint was also very well made.

This book is well worth reading for anyone with a fascination with U.S. History and an interest to see how current U.S. Presidents live and why they now live like that.

The Most Comprehensive Read on the Post Presidency
There are a small handful of books and articles on the post-presidency.There is a terrific American Heritage article about Reagan sending Carter, Ford, and Nixon to Egypt together; a book put together by the Hoover Library based on a symposium called Farewell to the Chief (http://www.amazon.com/Farewell-Chief-Former-Presidents-American/dp/0962333336/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243093916&sr=8-2) and a subpar book about the modern post-presidency called Second Acts (http://www.amazon.com/Second-Acts-Presidential-Lives-Legacies/dp/1592289428).Of the bunch, I highly recommend Citizen in Chief.

What Citizen in Chief has that the others don't is full coverage of the post-presidency, from Washington to Clinton, with some hints as to Bush 43's plan.Most other books focus only on the post-World War II post-presidency, where presidents were much more celebrated and had larger bully pulpits.But that leaves out interesting stories, such as John Tyler's peace conference to try and avert the Civil War (an odd position for a guy who ended up serving in the Confederate Congress) and Rutherford B. Hayes' work to educate African Americans.This book still gives ample coverage to the post-World War II era, which of course has the most relevance today.

The book is broken up thematically.It includes chapters on how they made money, their libraries, how they interacted with American wars after their presidency, their support for other politicians, the few who reentered elective politics themselves, and their public service efforts.The only thematic chapter I felt should have been added is on presidential memoirs.Although many receive a mention throughout the book, how each president dealt with writing their memoirs would be an interesting analysis.For example, Martin Van Buren went to Italy to write his.Some presidents wrote multi-volume studies of themselves.Others wrote shorter books, white washing their mistakes.

The post-presidency is a unique animal.In many nations, the most powerful leader has a great chance of returning to power after their term (look at Israel's continuous recycling of their politicians).In the United States, that is a rare occurrence and unheard of in modern times.The US is also unique in the power of the office, not just in the US but abroad as well.Even after holding the job, an ex-president still has the potential for more influence than most other countries' presidents or prime ministers.

I highly recommend this book to see how presidents followed up the first line of their obituaries.Each president who did not pass in office has their own fascinating story.

Amazing Insights
I truy enjoyed reading this book. The information provided in this most amazing and eye opening work of literature is something never taught in school and never addressed in local forums.So many Americans have yet to find out some of their president's secrets and life experiences that have in fact had an impact on all of our lives.This book offers its readers this unique opportunity.One will become aware of many history making events that we have yet to revere and embrace.The book is written with a keen sense of understanding and a most thorough approach to history.

An Intriguing Look at What Happens Next
What do you do after holding the most powerful job in the world?This book answers the question most of us don't even think to ask.Innovatively organized by theme rather than chronolgically, the writing is delightful and the meticulous research evident.It will absolutely leave you saying, "who knew?" ... Read more

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Leading complex organizations is never easy or simple. In this book, the author uses the university as the organizational vehicle through which to examine the phenomenon of leadership and followership in complex entities. The unique characteristics of universities as organizations are methodically discussed and the leadership experiences of six well-known university presidents are expertly analyzed within an original framework or model of leadership. Just as John Kennedy’s Profiles in Courage considered the notion of political courage within the institutional setting of Congress, this book explores leadership within the context of the modern American university. The particular roles of persuasion (rather than domination or power) and communication are highlighted and the author skillfully weaves the principal patterns from each of the six case studies to the specific situational conditions that faced these extraordinary individuals. Professor Padilla details what accomplished leaders actually do to motivate and to orchestrate change within their organizations. He also offers valuable suggestions on how to improve selection of leaders and increase organizational effectiveness. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A well-written academic text.
Professor Padilla has written a book on the characters and operating principles of a collection of exemplary academic leaders. While this volume is well researched, it exceeds the usual academic exercises in that it is eminently readable, insightful and human.The instructive lessons are clear and generally applicable to students of business management.

An original study on leadership.
I'm the head of a small, non-profit organization so I was not sure whether this book would actually be of much interest. But as one of the reviewers on the book-jacket writes, this book should be very useful to people outside universities as well. It is well-written and very engaging. What makes it especially appealing is the author's ability to take "academese" and convert it into understandable English. His chapter on leadership is one of the most original I have seen and the discussion of "resiliency" is fascinating. He also presents six detailed case studies and each is written essentially to stand alone. The first three chapters lay out a conceptual blueprint and this makes each case easier to interpret. His use of compelling anecdotes and well-researched historical passages really bring the cases to life. Highly recommended.

Solid Presentation of the Leadership Process
Even though this is essentially a research book it is very well
written and contains a solid presentation of the leadership process. The chapter summarizing leadership research is the best I've seen and provides an original framework around which to read the case studies. There has been a lot of academic research on leadership over the last twenty years and much of it is incomprehensible and so specific as to be relatively useless but the author's original synthesis of this work
is excellent. The cases studies are not only very entertaining but they follow this basic leadership framework developed in the theory chapter. The chapter on the University as a complex organization is also very good and highly readable.I recommend the book both as an essay on leadership and as an analysis of university presidency.
... Read more

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The slick and dandyish professional politician Martin Van Buren was to all appearances the opposite of his predecessor, the rugged general and Democratic champion Andrew Jackson. Yet he too had an iron temperament, and he would build a lasting legacy as the architect of the modern Democratic Party. Ted Widmer, a veteran of the Clinton White House, vividly brings to life the chaos and contention that plagued Van Buren's presidency. ... Read more

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Ages 10 and up. Each president is represented chronologically in this biographical resource. Information about his personal life as well as his years in the presidency is clearly written and useful for reports or general knowledge. Great resource as a class set! Some puzzles, games, and fun facts are sprinkled throughout. Worthington Press imprint. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (8)

Why the Children?
Why are there so many books about Obama for children?I don't recall George W. Or William Clinton having so many children's books written about them.This is over indulgent.I have nothing against President Obama and wish nothing but the best for him and his family but please leave my children alone.It's not necessary to paint President Obama as a mythical figure.Yes, he's accomplished a good deal but much history is still waiting to be written.I would prefer that my children learn about Obama from the same objective point of view that my wife and I have learned of him.These children's books are not objective in the least and they do not paint a real picture of the struggle that President Obama has had do endure or will endure in the future.Frankly, I do not see the need to target children.It makes me truly question the author's intent!

A model to be followed
Garen Thomas has done a good service in writing this book that can inspire both the young and the adult. The illustrations add spice to the book. Obama's life is full of events and struggles and his burning faith and optimism are rare bonuses for mankind as a whole. Barack Obama is the new angel of this era and he has a Midas touch.

Gautam Maitra
Author of 'Tracing the Eagle's Orbit: Illuminating Insights into Major US Foreign Policies Since Independence'.

buy this one
As a specialist in children's therapy, I see this as a valuable book for educating children. I have a bookcollection of biographical series for children -- artists, musicians, politicians, etc. This has become a valuable part of my collection. I highly recommend this one.

Engaging biography
This book gave me a great overview of Barack Obama.
It is a page-turner because Obama has led a life rich with experience.
Garen Thomas' writing style informs and entertains.
The photographs of Obama and his family, travels, and career add to the book's appeal.
I highly recommend it to adults as well as young adults and children.

Absolutely inspiring
This is definitely a book for adults, too.
It gives you an interesting insight of B. Obama's life as a politician but it doesn't forget his role as a son and father.
I couldn't put the book down.
5stars!! ... Read more

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The towering figure who sought to transform America into a "Great Society" but whose ambitions and presidency collapsed in the tragedy of the Vietnam War

Few figures in American history are as compelling and complex as Lyndon Baines Johnson, who established himself as the master of the U.S. Senate in the 1950s and succeeded John F. Kennedy in the White House after Kennedy's assassination on November 22, 1963.

Charles Peters, a keen observer of Washington politics for more than five decades, tells the story of Johnson's presidency as the tale of an immensely talented politician driven by ambition and desire. As part of the Kennedy-Johnson administration from 1961 to 1968, Peters knew key players, including Johnson's aides, giving him inside knowledge of the legislative wizardry that led to historic triumphs like the Voting Rights Act and the personal insecurities that led to the tragedy of Vietnam.

Peters's experiences have given him unique insight into the poisonous rivalry between Johnson and Robert F. Kennedy, showing how their misunderstanding of each other exacerbated Johnson's self-doubt and led him into the morass of Vietnam, which crippled his presidency and finally drove this larger-than-life man from the office that was his lifelong ambition.

Customer Reviews (8)

Lyndon Johnson- Key Items Missing
Charles Peters does a good to excellent job at outlining the 36th president of the United States.Of particular note is his understanding and explanation for the Viet Nam years that were to become the "straw" that broke the Johnson administration.However, two key elements of the Johnson story are missing.These two facets of Lyndon Johnson are key to understanding; first his rise to power, and second a major contributor to his decline via Viet Nam.The first missing critical piece concerns his rise to power: the vast Houston/Texas machine with which Johnson wielded unbridled power, and second his fear of Viet Nam that led to his involvement in the Six Day War conspiracy and the resulting "death" of the USS Liberty. The "Liberty Incident" would later set the diplomatic sieve that led to the capture of the USS Pueblo, the only US ship to fall into foriegn hands.

LBJ 101
Charles Peters successfully crafts an effectively concise biography of the paradoxical Lyndon Baines Johnson, a man who is sometimes kind and compassionate, sometimes a narcissistic bully. Peters lays out the many dimensions of the man, beginning with his childhood, the influence of his parents, his political career, the trials and tribulations of his presidency and his brief retirement.

Despite the book's paucity, Peters is able to give the reader both the big and small pictures. Johnson's drive to bring about the Great Society is explained, as well as a detailed account of how Johnson was dragged into the Vietnam quagmire, and how he waded in deeper and deeper even as it became more and more apparent that this was a fight he couldn't win.

Peters also explores the unseemly side of Johnson, including his extra-marital dalliances and his belittling and humiliating treatment of his staff. A skilled writer, Peters is able to broach those subjects without succumbing to sensationalism or a trashy tabloid journalism style.

I recommend this book as a wonderful account of the life of a complicated man, showing warts and all, but leaving the reader with a new appreciation for Johnson's goals and ambitions and for all that he was able to accomplish, especially in the field of civil rights. If you've wondered why many historians include Johnson in the list of great presidents, this book will help you to understand why. If Lyndon Johnson does not strike you an an interesting president before you read that book, you opinion will be significantly changed by this delightful biography.

A complex story told too simply
I have enjoyed the American President's Series and have found that they do a better job when they examine the lesser known presidents.Historians such as Robert Caro and Doris Kerns Goodwin have written much better and more detailed histories of LBJ and sadly this book, while factually correct and interesting, just can not compare.

Charles Peters does a credible job at telling a complex story but this is a character who needs more room for his story to be told.Just as Lincoln, or FDR needs more room in a biography so does Lyndon Johnson. He was President during a period of great change for the country. He was very influential and is very interesting both for his success and his failures, both of epic scale. I think this is interesting but I think the series is better with lesser known characters.

Insecurity
I've liked each of the books I've read in the American Presidents Series, and the latest for me, Lyndon B. Johnson, may be the shortest book about the 36th president I've read. Despite the brevity, Charles Peters captured Johnson quite well, in my opinion, especially the insecurity he felt throughout his life. Peters presents the highs and lows of Johnson's life and presidency, and through snippets covers the man fully, warts and all. The way in which Johnson berated his subordinates has always intrigued me, and Peters covers that with clarity and efficiency. Any reader who enjoys history and efficient writing will appreciate this book.

Rating: Three-star (Recommended)

Great read: the essence of LBJ
I was thrilled to discover that Charles Peters' LYNDON B.JOHNSON is a must-read account and assessment of LBJ--his triumphs and his failures, warts and all. It has the freshness and the definitive insights similar to what John Lewis Gaddis provided in his nearly 400-page THE COLD WAR: A NEW HISTORY.

One-hundred-sixty-one pages in which to capture the essence, the explosive charm and the denigrating crudeness of LBJ? How could this satisfy both a generation that had experienced the Johnson years as well as a new group that know only snippets about the man `responsible for the Vietnam quagmire?' This is a seemingly impossible task that Peters has accomplished with eloquence, an uncommon grasp of Johnson's complexities and apparent contradictions, and with keen personal insights from his participation in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations and over forty years as Mr. The Washington Monthly.

I plunged into LYNDON B. JOHNSON with apprehensions. As a Foreign Service Officer I twice (1965 and 1967) had been invited by our ambassador in Saigon to join him and had twice refused. I am familiar with George Ball, Sam Adams, and Jim Thomson on Vietnam. I have read over 2,000 pages of Caro's monumental Johnson biography and await his capstone volume on THE PRESIDENCY. I have admired Dallek on Johnson and was one of the early readers of Kearns' LYNDON JOHNSON AND THE AMERICAN DREAM. I considered Patterson's 185 pages in GRAND EXPECTATIONS on the Johnson presidency to be a superb synthesis.

As Peters describes, `Landslide Lyndon' was a shameless suck up to those who could advance his unbridled ambitions. Sam Rayburn and Richard Russell were his carefully targeted `daddies,' and he fawned over FDR. His ruthless obsession with power as well as an uncanny ability to mastermind pragmatic compromises led to a functional relationship with Ike and to earning the accolade, in Caro's words, MASTER OF THE SENATE.Peters does not fully explain why Johnson traded being Senate majority leader for being an outsider vice president in a Kennedy administration that virtually ostracized him.

Peters, relying on his personal contacts and savvy from being a Washington insider for two generations, has captured the soul of the Johnson presidency. Johnson's War on Poverty and Great Society initiatives, though brief, have had a more profound impact on America than did FDR's One Hundred Days. "We Shall Overcome" Johnson, whobroke an unprecedented 75-day Senate filibuster in achieving the Civil Rights Act of 1964,, together with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, accomplished more for civil rights than any other American president except, perhaps, Lincoln.

Medicare, federal aid to education, the National Endowment for the Arts (and Humanities), and dozens of other systemic-change legislation profoundly altered the American landscape. The Johnson overreach enacted more legislation than could effectively be implemented. Ironically, five days after signing the 1965 voting law, the Watts riot triggered outbursts through the country and sharply diminished the civil rights political momentum.

Were President Johnson to be judged solely on his domestic accomplishments, historians might rank him among the great American presidents. But there was Vietnam. Peters devotes 20% of his 161-page essay to Vietnam. This alone makes LYNDON B. JOHNSON a `must read.' He tells the story of a modern Greek tragedy. Johnson, with his Alamo and Neville Chamberlain psychological baggage, could not be the first American president to lose a war. (Nor could JFK, but that's another story.) On Vietnam LBJ turned and twisted like a moth attracted to a flame. He desperately sought some honorable accommodation. Ho Chi Minh, with the patience and historical certitude acquired during his Dien Bien Phu saga, ignored Johnson's desperate efforts to strike a deal. Years from now historians might compare Johnson's dilemma with what has occurred to the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Johnson was a driven man without a less-frenetic cruise control. This resulted in great domestic triumphs and his Vietnam Waterloo. Ironically, the Tet offensive, which Walter Cronkite, the media, and the American public viewed as a massive American defeat, was in fact, a significant U. S. military victory. The loss of Johnson credibility on Vietnam rendered him incapable of capitalizing on this `victory.'

Even today the Johnson record is dominated by his Vietnam record. Peters places this in its proper perspective. (It took the devious Nixon/Kissinger duo another five years, and massive additional American and Vietnamese casualties, to execute a withdrawal without honor.) What occurred was, in my view, inevitable and Johnson, in part because of his personal excesses, remains the fall guy for Vietnam.

Peters argues that Johnson's total record earns him a spot at least in the pantheon of near great American presidents. I agree. I hope that his essay will soften some of the self-righteous vitriol that historians still display towards Johnson. As an historian, I think it unlikely, at least in my lifetime, that Johnson will experience the upgrade in historians' rankings that Truman experienced.

I urge historical pundits to read Peters' LYNDON B. JOHNSON and then to reflect on what this extraordinary personality has accomplished for modern-day America.
... Read more

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Armoured Cars in Eden.A president's son at war in the land that became modern day Iraq.This is the story of a young American man serving in a little documented force in an almost forgotten campaign. More remarkably, he was from a background of military tradition and adventure and the son of a former United States president. His war was against the Turkish Ottoman Empire, his service that of a volunteer in the British army, his familiar locations Negef, Falujah, Baghdad - exotic place names once again familiar to Americans at war. His is a story of parallels and contrasts - of religious sensitivities, rivalries, civil unrest, occupying armies and conflict along the Euphrates and Tigris rivers almost a century ago. Roosevelt's experiences conclude in the Argonne at the end of hostilities. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

new look @ Iraq
good book written nearly a century ago describs Mesopotamia during WWI when it was governed by the Turks. The british war in the mideast covered, I enjoyed it as a back drop to todays events there and the travel book style it was written in. ... Read more

Product Description
Each volume in this series is organized around an individual presidency and gathers a host of biographical, analytical, and primary source historical material that analyzes the presidency and brings the president, his administration, and his times to life. The series focuses on key moments in U.S. political history as seen through the eyes of the most influential presidents to take the oath of office. Unique head notes provide the context to data, tables and excerpted primary source documents. ... Read more

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Best known as the second president and primary architect of Bryn Mawr College, M. Carey Thomas was also a founder of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, a leader in the women's suffrage movement, and the preeminent spokeswoman for education around the turn of the century. Brilliantly capturing all sides of the life and personality of this strong and influential woman, Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz details Thomas's accomplishments as an educator and feminist and her intimate relationships with women, as well as her manipulative and duplicitous side, her racism, and her anti-Semitism. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (8)

Rendering unto the Caesars
Nigel Hamilton's "American Caesars" is much more than a Presidential refresher. He adds well-reasoned perspective and context to the ups and downs - professional and personal - of past U.S. Presidents from FDR to W. Thus it's both a fast-paced but thorough look back at the major events of the past 80 years or so, and a refreshing take on them from a wise and progressive thinker. Nigel frames his work along the lines of Suetonius's first twelve Caesars of Rome but don't let that deter you. Who doesn't need to learn a few lessons in life from the original power guys?

Nigel nails the U.S. Caesars, one by one, from the wily FDR to the hapless W. I particularly enjoyed his portraits of LBJ, Ford, Reagan and Carter. As a former Carter man in Washington, I was dreading another bashing of Jimmy Who? But the author's retrospective of the 39th President, world peacemaker and Nobel Peace lauraete is incisive and fair. He devastates Bush/Cheney/Rove/Rumsfeld - justifiably so - and in so doing gives the lie to the contention that one cannot hope to write instant history of any lasting quality. Buy and read this book if you enjoy Presidents, history and great story-telling from a master biographer.

Republic on the Ropes
In 1787, at the close of our Constitutional Convention, as the wraps came off the document that scores of the best politicians in North America had deliberated on in secret for months, Benjamin Franklin was asked, "Is it a republic or a monarchy?" and replied, "A republic, if you can keep it."Franklin knew that the Romans had kept their republic for over 400 years before Sulla and Caesar destroyed it and substituted a monarchy.It is sad to see the day come when no educated American will object to the executive magistrate of our republic, holding an office precisely delimited in the second article of the Philadelphia Constitution, being referred to without objection as a Caesar (in German, "Kaiser" and in Russian, "Czar").Equally sad to see the republic whose constitution gives all lawmaking power to a Congress referred to without objection as an "empire."

So let me be the one to file this objection, one which I wrote a book about in 1983The End of Kings: A History of Republics and Republicans.Our shift from republic to empire has not been as obvious as Rome's, and some customary republican restraint still hangs on; but if any of the next 12 presidents behave like Suetonius's Nero or Caligula, perhaps Mr. Hamilton will live to say he told us so.

The rise and fall of the American Presidency
The platform of Suetonius' "Twelve Caesars" served Mr. Hamilton as the inspiration for this book, which is a chronological survey of twelve American Presidents, their private and pubic lives, starting with the greatet of all, FDR ,and ending with the most horrible of them, George W.Bush,according to Hamilton.(I personally,agree with his conclusion.)
So many things had already been written about these twelve that the reader feels Mr.Hamilton is trying to do his best in order perhaps to say something original. This does not,unfortunately,happen abd when you finish the book you ask yourself:So what?
There is no thesis or anything original here that justifies reading it if you are a specialist in American history. The style of writing is extremely simple and if this book was meant to be a primer for someone who knows nothing about those twelve, then there is some king of good excuse for buying it. Beware of the poor editing and proofreading!

Aware of what it's supposed to be, but...
Hamilton has written a book which, he claims, is the American equivalent of Suetonius's "Twelve Caesars"."Twelve Caesars" was Suetonius's account of the personal and public lives of some of Rome's emperors.Hamilton wanted to do an American equivalent, in which he justifies his use of gossip and personal biases being included in this book.Fair enough.However, the issue I take with this is that while some readers are savvy enough to understand this, most are not, and will take what he says as truth. In fact, Hamilton quotes from the extremely dubious source Kitty Kelley.And while he is an excellent writer, he overuses imperial idioms in his descriptions to the point it becomes obnoxious.Some of his chronology for certain events is not always clear and may leave the reader with a misunderstanding as to what happened when. He also draws heavily from secondary sources, and you are left wondering what primary research he did.Always be skeptical of history or biography that is based almost entirely on secondary sources.

A Voice of Reason in a World Gone Mad
As de Tocqueville proved two centuries ago, the keen eye of the foreign-born observer often sees more than the rest of us. In his American Caesars, Hamilton has done to the modern presidency what the traveling Frenchman did with American culture and politics. He nailed it.

Like Suetonius, Hamilton is opinionated, passionate, funny, gossipy, but at the same time he writes with a brilliance and detachment that is rarely found in books devoted to recent history. Like the Roman historian, Hamilton delivers an important tale that no one who lives in the American Empire should be without.
... Read more

Product Description
Each volume in this series is organized around an individual presidency and gathers a host of biographical, analytical, and primary source historical material that will analyze the presidency and bring the president, his administration, and his times to life. The series focuses on key moments in U.S. political history as seen through the eyes of the most influential presidents to take the oath of office. Unique headnotes provide the context to data, tables and excerpted primary source documents. The format of each book follows the same organization and includes: [yen] Introduction [yen] Biographical Sketch [yen] Campaigns and Electoral Strategies [yen] Key Figures in the Administration, A to Z [yen] Administration Policies [yen] Crises and Flashpoints [yen] Relationship with Major Institutions [yen] After the White House [yen] Appendix: Timeline [yen] Bibliography [yen] Index This new volume on the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt will cover: [yen] The Great Depression and The New Deal [yen] The Supreme Court [yen] World War II [yen] Global Politics ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

This Book Presents An Informative Perspective On One Of The Nation's Most Influential Presidents
".....Ideal for research or general reading, THIS BOOK PRESENTS AN INFORMATIVE PERSPECTIVE ON ONE OF THE NATION'S MOST INFLUENTIAL PRESIDENTS....."
[from the book of the back cover] ... Read more

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This unparalleled illustrated reference book is a fascinating guide to the 43 statesmen that have held the highest-ranking political office in the United States' government. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Pretty But Somewhat Subjective
I'm only a bit into this book so perhaps it takes another turn later on but a couple of things have already caught me somewhat by surprise.Here's what I've seen so far.

This book perpetuates the idea that Betsy Ross created the first American flag.This has been debated and research has shown,most thoroughly by the Smithsonian National Museum of America History that this is quite likely at best an American myth.There was no claim that Betsy Ross actually designed or sewed the flag during her lifetime.It was nearly 100 years later when her grandson, William J. Canby "presented a paper to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in which he claimed that his grandmother had "made with her hands the first flag" of the United States."I found it strange to include this retelling in a book that should give us a solid basis in American history.

Secondly, (so far) we all have our opinions of Presidents and their time in office.But to claim an opinion as a fact, leaves the entire work as suspect at best.In describing the people who have held the office of President the author states, "In the 20th century, as the United States became a global superpower, the scope of presidential power correspondingly increased.Nevertheless, among the 19 presidents elected since 1901, only Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt thus far have established historical reputations that match the most distinguished of their predecessors."

It doesn't matter if we agree with the statement or not, what matters is that it is a subjective statement.In my opinion, while this book has merit as a general reference piece, it is important to further research the ideas presented.

Presidents of America
"The Complete Illustrated Guide to the Presidents of America" is a wonderful resource to the panapoly of United States presidents, from George Washington to Barack Obama. It is beautifully illustrated with colored (and yes, black & white) pictures.Best of all, the history is neatly organized chronologically into two parts (Early & Lattter-Day presidents) and ten chapters each titled after the men who best signify the eras of their offices. The book provides a great way to learn the dates along with who was who and who won when.Don Clark.Folsom, CA. ... Read more

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Presidential Trivia
The Feats, Fates, Families, Foibles, and Firsts of Our American Presidents
Revised and Updated
From the beloved Richard Lederer comes another kind of trivia book-Presidential Trivia. In it you'll find all the detailsabout the lives of the United States presidents. It answers such questions as: Who was the first president to be assassinated? Who was the first president to be born an American citizen? Who was the first to be impeached? It also answers less important but certainly interesting questions such as: Who was our fattest president? Our tallest? Who played golf? Who played poker?
... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Presidential Feats, Fates, Families, Foibles and Firsts
Richard Lederer is an interesting author of more than thirty books. Known as a "verbivore" (a word he coined in the early 1980s), Lederer's interests focus primarily on uncovering word origins, pointing out common grammatical errors and fallacies, and exploring palindromes, anagrams, and other forms of recreational wordplay.

Most recently he has focused his attention in another direction: Presidential Trivia, a fascinating book that will remind you of many of the facts you learned in school, but will also inform you of such odd items as how many of our presidents had no children, which is the birth state for the most of our presidents and which college boasts the most presidents as alumni.

Thirty of our forty-two presidents have been in the military -- do you know which ones they are? How about who was our heaviest president, or our tallest? Which president had the most pets? And do you know which president and his wife conducted the first Easter egg roll on the White House lawn? It's all there in this fascinating book.

Dr. Lederer asks who was president for the longest period of time, and explains that it was Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was elected to four terms and served from 1933 to 1945. He further explains that this is unlikely to happen again as long as the Twenty-Second Amendment is in effect, which states: "No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once."

We find that William Henry Harrison was the father to ten children (four girls and six boys), one who became the father to another president, Benjamin Harrison. We learn that Bill Clinton was our most traveled president, with 133 trips abroad, that none of our presidents has been a single child, and that over half of our presidents have been lawyers.

One of our presidents exclaimed, "It's good to the last drop!" when drinking a cup of Maxwell House coffee. The company took their motto from that exclamation, and it's still in use today. If you don't know which president this was, he is also responsible for the popularity of the teddy bear, which is actually named after him... and if you don't know, then you'll just have to read the book.

The vice presidency is also covered briefly, including a comment from John McCain when he was once asked if he would consider becoming vice president. He responded, "You know, I spent all those years in a North Vietnamese prison camp, kept in the dark, fed scraps -- why the heck would I want to do that all over again?"

I wonder if anyone bothered to tell Sarah Palin about this when he asked her to be his running mate.

There's nothing in the book about her or any of the current presidential or vice presidential candidates, as the book came out before the conventions in 2008. It is notable, though, that Dr. Lederer has already done some sporadic writing on the candidates, and has observed the following:

"We are engaged in the most protracted presidential election in history. Many would claim that it is also among the most passionate and important. One thing's for sure: The 2007-2008 presidential election is among the most unusual that American voters have ever experienced."

This reviewer will agree fully.

Also suggested among Richard Lederer's excellent and usually humorous books are Anguished English, More Anguished English, The Bride of Anguished English: A Bonanza of Bloopers, Blunders, Botches, and Boo-Boos, and and a personal favorite The Cunning Linguist: Ribald Riddles, Lascivious Limericks, Carnal Corn, and Other Good, Clean Dirty Fun.

You can't go wrong with any of them, but don't miss Presidential Trivia, especially during this election season.

lots of fun
this book, presidential trivia, is a quick read, easy to pick up and put down.it's choke full of tid bits that aren't commonly known about many of our presidents.pieces of it i found really touching (e.g., the guy in the electoral college voted against monroe where everybody else voted for him ONLY because he felt that Washington ought to be the only president unanimously elected).i also liked a quip on lincoln's height, at 6'3 3/4", once, when asked about his height, he said that he was "tall enough to touch the ground".great bedside reading or coffeetable reading.i really enjoyed it!while i'm no presidential scholar, the data presented by lederer appear consistent with the few books that i've read.nice job! ... Read more