A bona fide American hero at the close of World War II, General Dwight D. Eisenhower rode an enormous wave of popularity into the Oval Office seven years later. We may view the Eisenhower years throu
The austere president who presided over the Roaring Twenties and whose conservatism masked an innovative approach to national leadershipHe was known as “Silent Cal.” Buttoned up and
A provocative reconsideration of a presidency on the brink of Civil WarAlmost no president was as well trained and well prepared for the office as James Buchanan. He had served in the Pennsylvania st
A bestselling historian examines the life of a Founding Father.Renowned historian and social commentator Garry Wills takes a fresh look at the life of James Madison, from his rise to prominence in th
The American Century opened with the election of that quintessentially American adventurer, Theodore Roosevelt. Louis Auchincloss traces Roosevelt's celebrated military career, his early involvement
The rough-hewn general who rose to the nation’s highest office, and whose presidency witnessed the first political skirmishes that would lead to the Civil WarZachary Taylor was a soldier’
The first president born after America's independence ushers in a new era of no-holds-barred democracy The first "professional politician" to become president, the slick and dandyish Martin Van Buren
William McKinley's election in 1896 was a breakthrough. It marked the first time in two decades that the Republican party was able to solidify its majority, putting the GOP in a position to dominate
Woodrow Wilson was a man of words. Overcoming dyslexia, he finally learned to read at the age of ten, and then went on to spend much of his early life writing about politics and practicing oratory on
Perhaps no U.S. president was less suited for the practice of politics than John Adams. A gifted philosopher who helped lead the movement for American independence from its inception, Adams was unpre
If Rutherford B. Hayes's significance as chief executive had faded in the public memory, nothing brought it back into our consciousness more than the similarities between the controversial elections
Heavy were the burdens of John Quincy Adams's upbringing. Son of the forbidding John Adams and the domineering Abigail, puritanical New Englanders both, he was driven from the earliest age to a life
When Grover Cleveland took office in 1885, one world was ending and a new one was emerging. The signs were everywhere: transcontinental railroads were still being built, the telephone was still a nov
The president of larger-than-life ambitions and appetites whose term defined America at the close of the twentieth centuryBill Clinton: a president of contradictions. He was a Rhodes Scholar and a Yal
The unwanted president who ran afoul of Congress over Reconstruction and was nearly removed from officeAndrew Johnson never expected to be president. But just six weeks after becoming Abraham L
The towering figure who sought to transform America into a "Great Society" but whose ambitions and presidency collapsed in the tragedy of the Vietnam WarFew figures in American history are as compell
America’s greatest president, who rose to power in the country’s greatest hour of need and whose vision saw the United States through the Civil WarAbraham Lincoln towers above the others
When William Henry Harrison died in April 1841, just one month after his inauguration, Vice President John Tyler assumed the presidency. It was a controversial move by this Southern gentleman, who ha
The plainspoken man from Missouri who never expected to be president yet rose to become one of the greatest leaders of the twentieth centuryIn April 1945, after the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt
The judicious statesman who won victories abroad but suffered defeat at home, whose wisdom and demeanor served America well at a critical timeGeorge Bush was a throwback to a different era. A p
As president, Washington built almost unimpeded power into the executive branch, not only occupying the office but virtually conquering it. And yet his was by no means a one-man presidency. James Mac
The maverick politician from Georgia who rode the post- Watergate wave into office but whose term was consumed by economic and international crises A peanut farmer from Georgia, Jimmy Carter ros
The genial but troubled New Englander whose single-minded partisan loyalties inflamed the nation's simmering battle over slavery Charming and handsome, Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire was drafted to
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a statesman whose massive achievements tower over the twentieth century. In a ranking of American presidents, he is rivaled only by George Washington and Abraham Lincoln
