The Best Biographies of Millard Fillmore
Thirteen apparently wasn’t Millard Fillmore’s magic number. And the presidency clearly wasn’t the job for which he was best suited. …
Category Archives: Best Biographies Posts
The Best Biographies of Zachary Taylor
So far on this journey of twelve presidents and fifty-six biographies I’ve been surprised at how interesting I have found …
The Best Biographies of James Polk
Historians generally regard James Polk as one of the “near-great” presidents, ranking him just behind Eisenhower, Truman and Polk’s mentor …
The Best Biographies of John Tyler
[Updated 8/2020] John Tyler is generally considered one of the “least effective” presidents in our history. So it was with …
The Best Biographies of William Henry Harrison
True for many of the first nine presidents, William Henry Harrison was far more interesting than I expected. Born into …
The Best Biographies of Martin Van Buren
The young Martin Van Buren, it turns out, was a superb politician. Not a charismatic or socially instinctive soul, he …
The Best Biographies of Andrew Jackson
If you thought John Quincy Adams’s life was tailor-made for a great biography…wait until you sample Andrew Jackson’s! Far from …
The Best Biographies of John Quincy Adams
[Updated Oct 2024] In every respect, John Quincy Adams’s life was made for a great novel or movie…or even a …
The Best Biographies of James Monroe
[Updated] James Monroe was the first of the earliest presidents to capture the presidency without an obvious tailwind assisting his …
The Best Biographies of James Madison
[Updated July 2022] James Madison may have provided the fewest biographies for me to read among the first four presidents …
The Best Biographies of Thomas Jefferson
[Updated] After nearly two months with Thomas Jefferson involving five biographies (ten books in total) and over 5,000 pages of …
The Best Biographies of John Adams
The journey through the John Adams presidency involved nearly five weeks and over 3,400 pages of reading. It included four …
The Best Biographies of George Washington
[Updated] The journey to read the best biographies of every president from George Washington to Barack Obama seems a long …
My Journey Through the Best Presidential Biographies 