Biography & Autobiography : Presidents & Heads of State

"The American presidency . . . is merely a way station en route to the blessed condition of being an ex-president.". —John Updike. The presidency is a captivating concept in the hearts and minds of the American people. Part commander-in-chief, part national symbol, the role of president of the United States of America has been studied and commemorated by a rich trove of literature—in fiction and nonfiction, in serious political analysis and lighthearted satire. Yet despite the vast scholarship available, the lives of our presidents after leaving office remain remarkably unprobed. In Citizen-in-Chief , Leonard Benardo and Jennifer Weiss reveal that the true stories of these great leaders, whose quest for power brought them to the country’s highest office, are rarely complete once they leave the White House. Now, as another president strides uncertainly toward the sunset, Citizen-in-Chief examines the dramatic, little-known, and often heart-rending postpresidential lives of former Oval Office occupants. It offers the most in-depth look to date at the diverse and broad-ranging paths these famous—sometimes notorious—men have taken:.:.; Destitute at his death, fifth president James Monroe was buried in New York, too poor to be transported to his native Virginia.; After ending Reconstruction and removing Union troops from the South during his single-term presidency, Rutherford B. Hayes went on to crusade for universal education on behalf of African Americans.; Known for "Hoovervilles" and not heroics during the Great Depression, Herbert Hoover spent his postpresidential years orchestrating overseas relief work.; After a middling presidency, John Quincy Adams reinvented himself as a progressive member of Congress, spending seventeen years as a significant antislavery advocate.; After his lone term in office, William Howard Taft went on to advocate peace-building efforts through international arbitration during World War I an more...

Price: $21.99

A GROUNDBREAKING BOOK about the modern presidency, The Clinton Tapes invites readers into private dialogue with a gifted, tormented, resilient President of the United States. Here is what President Clinton thought and felt but could not say in public. more...

Price: $35.00

A groundbreaking reassessment of Ronald Reagan's life and presidency, exploring his lifelong struggle—and ultimate victory—against Communism. In this dramatic meditation on the life of Ronald Reagan, historian Paul Kengor presents an account of the fortieth president that has never been written—one that details Reagan's campaign against the Soviet Union, which lasted for more than forty years. Tracing Reagan's anti-Communist sentiment to his days as president of the Screen Actors Guild, Kengor illuminates how this experience first emboldened the actor to speak out against the oppression of the Soviet Union and describes Reagan's multifaceted efforts to prevent Communism from taking hold in Hollywood. Ultimately his SAG tenure paved the way for his burgeoning political career, which, from its inception, had but one purpose: the end of Communism. more...

Price: $13.99

This is the story of a political miracle -- the perfect match of man and moment. Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office in March of 1933 as America touched bottom. Banks were closing everywhere. Millions of people lost everything. The Great Depression had caused a national breakdown. With the craft of a master storyteller, Jonathan Alter brings us closer than ever before to the Roosevelt magic. Facing the gravest crisis since the Civil War, FDR used his cagey political instincts and ebullient temperament in the storied first Hundred Days of his presidency to pull off an astonishing conjuring act that lifted the country and saved both democracy and capitalism. Who was this man? To revive the nation when it felt so hopeless took an extraordinary display of optimism and self-confidence. Alter shows us how a snobbish and apparently lightweight young aristocrat was forged into an incandescent leader by his domineering mother; his independent wife; his eccentric top adviser, Louis Howe; and his ally-turned-bitter-rival, Al Smith, the Tammany Hall street fighter FDR had to vanquish to complete his preparation for the presidency. "Old Doc Roosevelt" had learned at Warm Springs, Georgia, how to lift others who suffered from polio, even if he could not cure their paralysis, or his own. He brought the same talents to a larger stage. Derided as weak and unprincipled by pundits, Governor Roosevelt was barely nominated for president in 1932. As president-elect, he escaped assassination in Miami by inches, then stiffed President Herbert Hoover's efforts to pull him into cooperating with him to deal with a terrifying crisis. In the most tumultuous and dramatic presidential transition in history, the entire banking structure came tumbling down just hours before FDR's legendary "only thing we have to fear is fear itself" Inaugural Address. In a major historical find, Alter unearths the draft of a radio speech in which Roosevelt considered enlisting a private army of Ame more...

Price: $16.00

The object of this book is to give a faithful picture of him as he was in private life. According to those who knew and loved him best, he was a beautiful domestic character. more...

Price: $4.95