Presidential Biographies

Biographies written about the (thus far) men who have served as United States presidents.
Updated September 19, 2022
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John Adams
McCullough, David G.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning, bestselling biography of America's founding father and second president that was the basis for the acclaimed HBO series, brilliantly told by master historian David McCullough. In this powerful, epic biography, David McCullough unfolds the adventurous...
My life
Clinton, Bill, 1946-
President Bill Clinton's My Life is the strikingly candid portrait of a global leader who decided early in life to devote his intellectual and political gifts, and his extraordinary capacity for hard work, to serving the public. It shows us the progress of a remarkable American,...
Truman
McCullough, David G.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Harry S. Truman, whose presidency included momentous events from the atomic bombing of Japan to the outbreak of the Cold War and the Korean War, told by America's beloved and distinguished historian. The life of Harry S. Truman is one of...
Team of rivals the political genius of Abraham Lincoln
Goodwin, Doris Kearns.
Winner of the Lincoln Prize Acclaimed historian Doris Kearns Goodwin illuminates Abraham Lincoln's political genius in this highly original work, as the one-term congressman and prairie lawyer rises from obscurity to prevail over three gifted rivals of national reputation to become...
Theodore Rex
Morris, Edmund.
The most eagerly awaited presidential biography in years, Theodore Rex is a sequel to Edmund Morris’s classic bestseller The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt. It begins by following the new President (still the youngest in American history) as he comes down from Mount Marcy, New York,...
Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
Morris, Edmund.
Lincoln
Donald, David Herbert, 1920-2009.
The phenomenal national bestseller that is "the Lincoln biography for this generation" (Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.)--now in paperback. Drawing on resources not available until recently--including Lincoln's personal papers, archives, and newspaper reports--two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author David...
Mornings on horseback
McCullough, David G.
Unfinished life John F Kennedy 1917-1963
Dallek, Robert.
An Unfinished Life is the first major, single-volume life of John F. Kennedy to be written by a historian in nearly four decades. Drawing upon previously unavailable material and never-before-opened archives to tell Kennedy's story.We learn for the first time just how sick Kennedy was, what...
Andrew Jackson : his life and times
Brands, H. W.
The extraordinary story of Andrew Jackson—the colorful, dynamic, and forceful president who ushered in the Age of Democracy and set a still young America on its path to greatness—told by the bestselling author of The First American. The most famous American of...
His Excellency George Washington
Ellis, Joseph J.
The author of seven highly acclaimed books, Joseph J. Ellis has crafted a landmark biography that brings to life in all his complexity the most important and perhaps least understood figure in American history, George Washington. With his careful attention to detail and his lyrical prose, Ellis has...
FDR
Smith, Jean Edward.
One of today’s premier biographers has written a modern, comprehensive, indeed ultimate book on the epic life of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In this superlative volume, Jean Edward Smith combines contemporary scholarship and a broad range of primary source material to provide an engrossing...
American lion Andrew Jackson in the White House
Meacham, Jon.
The definitive biography of a larger-than-life president who defied norms, divided a nation, and changed Washington forever Andrew Jackson, his intimate circle of friends, and his tumultuous times are at the heart of this remarkable book about the man who rose from nothing to...
Washington a life
Chernow, Ron.
From the author of Alexander Hamilton, the New York Times bestselling biography that inspired the musical, comes a gripping portrait of the first president of the United States. Winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Biography "Truly...
Thomas Jefferson the art of power
Meacham, Jon.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER .From Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Jon Meacham, "a big, grand, absorbing exploration of not just Jefferson and his role in history but also Jefferson the man, humanized as never before" (Entertainment Weekly) "Probably the best...
President McKinley Architect of the American century
Merry, Robert W., 1946-
"A deft character study of a president."--The New York Times Book Review "A valuable education on where America has been and, possibly, where it is going."--National Review "Magisterial."--The Christian Science Monitor ...
James Monroe: the quest for national identity
Ammon, Harry
Grant
Chernow, Ron
The #1 New York Times bestseller and New York Times Book Review 10 Best Books of 2017 "Eminently readable but thick with import . . . Grant hits like a Mack truck of knowledge." --Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic<...
Remarkable education of John Quincy Adams
Levin, Phyllis Lee.
A patriot by birth, John Quincy Adams's destiny was foreordained. He was not only "The Greatest Traveler of His Age," but his country's most gifted linguist and most experienced diplomat. John Quincy's world encompassed the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the early and late Napoleonic Age....
Eisenhower : in war and peace
Smith, Jean Edward.
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Christian Science Monitor * St. Louis Post-Dispatch In his magisterial bestseller FDR, Jean Edward Smith gave us a fresh, modern look at one of the most indelible figures in American history. Now this...
Richard Nixon : the life
Farrell, John A.
From a prize-winning biographer comes the defining portrait of a man who led America in a time of turmoil and left us a darker age. We live today, John A. Farrell shows, in a world Richard Nixon made.   At the end of WWII, navy lieutenant "Nick" Nixon returned from the...
His very best Jimmy Carter a life
Alter, Jonathan
From one of America's most respected journalists and modern historians comes the highly acclaimed, "splendid" (The Washington Post) biography of Jimmy Carter, the thirty-ninth president of the United States and Nobel Prize-winning humanitarian. Jonathan Alter tells the...
When character was king a story of Ronald Reagan
Noonan, Peggy, 1950-
It is twenty years -- a full generation -- since Ronald Reagan first walked into the White House and ignited a revolution. From the beginning, he enjoyed the American people's affection but now, as he approaches the end of his life, he has received what he deserved even more: their deep respect....
Destiny and power the American odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush
Meacham, Jon.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * In this "illuminating" (USA Today) biography, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham chronicles the life of George Herbert Walker Bush. "Destiny and Power reflects the qualities of both subject and biographer:...
Passage of power
Caro, Robert A.
WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE, THE MARK LYNTON HISTORY PRIZE, THE AMERICAN HISTORY BOOK PRIZEBook Four of Robert A. Caro's monumental The Years of Lyndon Johnson displays all the narrative energy and...

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