Presidential Biographies

"'An expert, extremely detailed account of John Adams' finest hour.'--Kirkus Reviews. Honoring the 250th Anniversary of the Boston Massacre The New York Times bestselling author of Lincoln's Last Trial and host of LivePD Dan Abrams and David Fisher tell the story of a trial that would change history. History remembers John Adams as a Founding Father and our country's second president. But in the tense years before the American Revolution, he was still...

Heroes are often defined as ordinary characters who are thrust into extraordinary circumstances, and through courage and a dash of luck, cement their place in history. Chosen as FDR's fourth-term vice president for his well-praised work ethic, good judgment, and lack of enemies, Harry S. Truman--a midwesterner who had no college degree and had never had the money to buy his own home--was the prototypical ordinary man. Until, that is, he found himself...

"As Alexander Hamilton's star has risen, Thomas Jefferson's has fallen, largely owing to their divergent views on race. Once seen as the most influential American champion of liberty and democracy, Jefferson is now remembered largely for his relationship with his slave Sally Hemings, and for electing not to free her or most of the other people he owned. In this magisterial biography, the eminent scholar John B. Boles does not ignore the aspects of...

"This...compact biography chronicles Franklin Delano Roosevelt's rise from a childhood of privilege to a presidency that forever changed the face of international diplomacy, the American party system, and the government's role in global and domestic policy. Brinkley...provides a clear, concise introduction to Roosevelt's sphinx-like character and remarkable achievements. In a vivid narrative packed with telling anecdotes, the book moves swiftly from...

"How do you solve a problem like James Madison? The fourth president is one of the most confounding figures in early American history -- his political trajectory seems almost intentionally inconsistent. He was both for and against a strong federal government. He wrote about the dangers of political parties in the Federalist papers and then helped to found the Republican party just a few years later. And though he has frequently been celebrated as...

From Dwight D. Eisenhower's modest childhood in Kansas to his years at West Point, from his rapid ascent through the military ranks and appointment as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe during World War II to his two terms as President, Paul Johnson's brief yet comprehensive biography paints a rich portrait of Eisenhower's life, including the many elements of his presidency that speak to American politics today.

"Who is Donald J. Trump? To discover Trump in full, the Washington Post assembled a team of award-winning reporters and researchers to investigate every aspect of his life, from his privileged upbringing in Queens to his hundreds of lawsuits, his infamous womanizing, his shifting position on abortion rights, his dizzying seven changes in party affiliation, and his astonishing, disruptive election as president in November 2016" -- Page [4] of cover....

"By the time of his assassination in 1963, John F. Kennedy stood at the helm of the greatest power the world had ever seen, a booming American nation he had steered through some of the most perilous diplomatic standoffs of the Cold War era. Born in 1917 to a striving Irish American family that had ascended the ranks of Boston's labyrinthine political machine, Kennedy was bred for government, and his meteoric rise to become the youngest president ever...

"From New York Times bestselling biographer Bob Spitz, a full and rich biography of an epic American life, capturing what made Ronald Reagan both so beloved and so transformational. More than five years in the making, based on hundreds of interviews and access to previously unavailable documents, and infused with irresistible storytelling charm, Bob Spitz's REAGAN stands fair to be the first truly post-partisan biography of our 40th President, and...