Published earlier this year, Richard Norton Smith’s long-anticipated biography of Gerald Ford is a valuable addition to the small collection of serious biographies of the 38th president. Smith is a biographer and historian who has also served as director of the presidential libraries for presidents Hoover, Eisenhower, Reagan and Ford. 

With 710 pages of text and nearly one-hundred pages of notes and bibliography, this is easily the longest of the five biographies of Gerald Ford I’ve read. It is also the most detailed, revealing and well-researched.

Smith, who delivered eulogies at the funerals of Gerald and Betty Ford, is hardly a clandestine fan of the former president. But, to his credit, he spends far more time reviewing Ford’s actions and character than he does advocating for what he may believe is his subject’s proper place in presidential history.

While this biography is quite lengthy, it is generally well-paced and begins with a bang. Readers get an excellent sense of Ford’s ancestry, hometown and childhood as well as a colorful account of his service in the U.S. Navy.  And one unmistakable theme resonates throughout the book: whatever you think of his politics, performance or personality, Ford was a man of unimpeachable character and personal decency.

Smith is careful to acknowledge – and scrutinize – a variety of third-party claims involving Ford’s personal and public integrity. These include allegations he had an extramarital affair, that he was involved in a rush-to-judgment during his service on the Warren Commission, and that he promised a pardon to Richard Nixon.

The biography meticulously tracks, dissects, analyzes and explores nearly every accessible facet of Ford’s life. It is almost impossible to imagine a future biographer surpassing this effort. Among the well-covered topics are Ford’s work on behalf of the Warren Commission, his first weeks in office following Nixon’s resignation, and a behind-the-scenes look at events leading up to his pardon of the 37th president. There is also more insight into the contest for the 1976 Republican nomination than I remember reading elsewhere.

But for all of its merit, this biography will not prove ideal for every reader. First, it assumes a reasonable degree of familiarity with the history of the era. While most notable historical events are referenced in the narrative, this is not a survey of American history during the LBJ, Nixon and Ford administrations. As a result, readers with little or no background on the times will fail to understand Ford’s actions within the broad historical context.

Second, even readers well-versed in American political history will find that Smith’s narrative sometimes feels too much like inside baseball – more likely to appeal to a small group of highly devoted Ford aficionados. The book occasionally groans under the weight of detail that many readers will find excessive or unnecessary.

Finally, Ford was famously committed to a life of public service. His personal life almost always took a back seat to whatever political office he occupied. Not surprisingly, Smith’s coverage provides overweighted focus on Ford’s three decades in public office and relatively little is seen of his family until the book’s final chapters.

Overall, however, Richard Norton Smith has accomplished a tall task: “An Ordinary Man” is a thorough, revealing, remarkably objective and generally interesting biography of an under-covered (and almost certainly under-appreciated) president. Though it will appeal primarily to historians and fans of the Ford presidency, it is unquestionably the new definitive biography of the 38th president and worth a read by anyone perusing the presidents.

Overall Rating: 4 stars