Review of “The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter” by Kai Bird
Published last week, Kai Bird’s “The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter” is the most recent full-length review of …
Tag Archives: presidential biographies
Review of “The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months that Changed the World” by A.J. Baime
Published in 2017, “The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months that Changed the World” is the fourth …
Review of “President McKinley: Architect of the American Century” by Robert Merry
Published in 2017, “President McKinley: Architect of the American Century” is Robert Merry’s fifth, and most recent, book. He is …
Review of “The Age of Eisenhower” by William I. Hitchcock
William Hitchcock’s “The Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950s” was published in 2018. Hitchcock is a …
Review of “John Quincy Adams: American Visionary” by Fred Kaplan
Fred Kaplan’s 2014 “John Quincy Adams: American Visionary” is one of the most recent and comprehensive biographies of the sixth …
Farewell to 2020, Hello 2021!
Few of us will be disappointed to see 2020 fade into the rear-view mirror. But from a strictly presidential perspective …
Review of “Hoover: An Extraordinary Life in Extraordinary Times” by Kenneth Whyte
Published in 2017, Kenneth Whyte’s “Hoover: An Extraordinary Life in Extraordinary Times” is the most recent biography of the 31st …
Review of “Abe: Abraham Lincoln in His Times” by David Reynolds
David Reynolds’s “Abe: Abraham Lincoln in His Times” was published seven weeks ago (September 2020) and is currently the best …
Review of “His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, A Life” by Jonathan Alter
Jonathan Alter’s long-awaited biography of the thirty-ninth president “His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, A Life” was published last month (September …
Review of “Washington” by Douglas Southall Freeman (Harwell abridgment)
Richard Harwell’s abridgment of Douglas Southall Freeman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 7-volume series on George Washington was published in 1968, fifteen years …
Review of “President without a Party: The Life of John Tyler” by Christopher Leahy
Christopher J. Leahy’s “President without a Party: The Life of John Tyler” was published earlier this year. It is the …
Celebrating 2,750 Days with the Presidents
About 7½ years ago I decided to read as many of the best presidential biographies as I could and to …
Review of “Grant” by Ron Chernow
Ron Chernow’s “Grant” was published in 2017 to almost immediate acclaim and was named a Top 10 Book of the …
Review of “James Monroe: A Life” by Tim McGrath
Released on May 5, “James Monroe: A Life” by Tim McGrath is the first comprehensive exploration of Monroe’s life in …
Getting Right with Lincoln (and Ronald White)
Those of you who have taken some or all of this journey through the best presidential biographies with me know …
