973.4-973.93: Presidential History

This collection contains titles that chronicle the lives of the American presidents. It consists mostly of biographies and memoirs but will also contain historical texts about important events where a president's actions and decision-making skills were significant.

Updated June 24, 2023
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1

Accidental presidents : eight men who changed America
Cohen, Jared
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The strength and prestige of the American presidency has waxed and waned since George Washington. Accidental Presidents looks at eight men who came to the office without being elected to it. It demonstrates how the character of the man...

2

Air Force One : a history of the presidents and their planes
Walsh, Kenneth T.
Paper Book
From the award-winning chief White House correspondent for U.S. News & World Report comes the definitive history of Air Force One. From FDR's prop-driven Pan Am to the glimmering blue and white jumbo 747 on which George W. Bush travels, the president's plane has captured...

3

And there was light : Abraham Lincoln and the American struggle
Meacham, Jon
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER . Pulitzer Prize-winning biographerJon Meacham chronicles the life of Abraham Lincoln, charting how-and why-he confronted secession, threats to democracy, and the tragedy of slavery to expand the possibilities of America. "Meacham has given us...

4

Bill O'Reilly's legends & lies : the patriots
Fisher, David
CD
The must-have companion to Bill O'Reilly's historical docudrama Legends and Lies: The Patriots, an exciting and eye-opening look at the Revolutionary War through the lives of its leaders The American Revolution was neither inevitable nor a unanimous cause. It pitted neighbors...

5

The bully pulpit : Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the golden age of journalism
Goodwin, Doris Kearns
Paper Book
Pulitzer Prize-winning author and presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin's dynamic history of Theodore Roosevelt, William H. Taft and the first decade of the Progressive era, that tumultuous time when the nation was coming unseamed and reform was in the air. Winner of the...

6

Days of fire : Bush and Cheney in the White House
Baker, Peter
Paper Book
In Days of Fire, Peter Baker, Chief White House Correspondent for The New York Times, takes us on a gripping and intimate journey through the eight years of the Bush and Cheney administration in a tour-de-force narrative of a dramatic and controversial presidency.

7

Destiny of the Republic : a tale of madness, medicine and the murder of a president
Millard, Candice.
Paper Book
James A. Garfield was one of the most extraordinary men ever elected president. Born into abject poverty, he rose to become a wunderkind scholar, a Civil War hero, and a renowned and admired reformist congressman. Nominated for president against his will, he engaged in a fierce battle with the...

8

Dinner with the president : food, politics, and a history of breaking bread at the White House
Prud'homme, Alex
Paper Book
A sumptuous narrative history of presidential food--from Washington starving at Valley Forge to Trump's well-done steaks with ketchup--from the co-author of My Life in France. 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is perhaps the most important house in the world, which gives the food...

9

The first conspiracy : the secret plot to kill George Washington
Meltzer, Brad
Paper Book
Taking place during the most critical period of our nation's birth, The First Conspiracy tells a remarkable and previously untold piece of American history that not only reveals George Washington's character, but also illuminates the origins of America's counterintelligence movement...

10

First dads : parenting and politics from George Washington to Barack Obama
Kendall, Joshua C.
Paper Book
Every president has had some experience as a parent. Of the 43 men who have served in the nation's highest office, 38 have fathered biological children and the other five adopted children. Each president's parenting style reveals much about his beliefs as well as his psychological make-up....

11

Franklin & Washington : the founding partnership
Larson, Edward J.
Paper Book
"Larson's elegantly written dual biography reveals that the partnership of Franklin and Washington was indispensable to the success of the Revolution." --Gordon S. Wood  From the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian comes a masterful, first-of-its-kind dual biography of Benjamin Franklin...

12

Friends divided John Adams and Thomas Jefferson
Wood, Gordon S.
Paper Book
A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of 2017 From the great historian of the American Revolution, New York Times-bestselling and Pulitzer-winning Gordon Wood, comes a majestic dual biography of two of America's most enduringly fascinating figures, whose...

13

The general vs. the president : MacArthur and Truman at the brink of nuclear war
Brands, H. W.
Paper Book
From master storyteller and historian H. W. Brands comes the riveting story of how President Harry Truman and General Douglas MacArthur squared off to decide America's future in the aftermath of World War II. At the height of the Korean War, President Harry S. Truman committed a...

14

The impeachers : the trial of Andrew Johnson and the dream of a just nation
Wineapple, Brenda
Paper Book
"This absorbing and important book recounts the titanic struggle over the implications of the Civil War amid the impeachment of a defiant and temperamentally erratic American president."-Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Soul of America When Abraham Lincoln...

15

Incomparable grace : JFK in the presidency
Updegrove, Mark K.
Paper Book
Nearly sixty years after his death, JFK still holds an outsize place in American culture. While Baby Boomers remember his dazzling presence as president, millennials more likely know him from advertisements for Omega watches or Ray Ban sunglasses. Yet his years in office were marked by more than his...

16

Jacksonland : President Andrew Jackson, Cherokee Chief John Ross, and a great American land grab
Inskeep, Steve
Paper Book
Jacksonland is the thrilling narrative history of two men-President Andrew Jackson and Cherokee chief John Ross-who led their respective nations at a crossroads of American history.Five decades after the Revolutionary War, the United States approached a constitutional crisis. At its center...

17

The Jeffersonians : the visionary presidencies of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe
Gutzman, Kevin R. C.
Paper Book
"A long, insightful look at three Founder presidents. ... Political histories are rarely page-turners, but Gutzman, clearly a scholar who has read everything on his subjects, writes lively prose and displays a refreshingly opinionated eye for a huge cast of characters and their often...

18

Leadership in turbulent times
Goodwin, Doris Kearns
Paper Book
From Pulitzer Prize-winning author and esteemed presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, an invaluable guide to the development and exercise of leadership from Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. The inspiration for the...

19

The Lincoln conspiracy : the secret plot to kill America's 16th president--and why it failed
Meltzer, Brad
Paper Book
Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch, the bestselling authors of The First Conspiracy, which covers the secret plot against George Washington, now turn their attention to a little-known, but true story about a failed assassination attempt on the sixteenth president in The Lincoln Conspiracy<...

20

No ordinary time : Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt : the home front in World War II
Goodwin, Doris Kearns.
Paper Book
In a portrayal of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt in the war years, this work illuminates the partnership that raised America from the Depression, forged military victory, and transformed the nation into a superpower.

21

Polk : the man who transformed the presidency and America
Borneman, Walter R.
Paper Book
InPolk, Walter R. Borneman gives us the first complete and authoritative biography of a president often overshadowed in image but seldom outdone in accomplishment. James K. Polk occupied the White House for only four years, from 1845 to 1849, but he plotted and attained a formidable agenda: He...

22

The president and the freedom fighter : Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and their battle to save America's soul
Kilmeade, Brian
Paper Book
Brian Kilmeade tells the little-known story of how Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass moved from strong disagreement to friendship, uniting over their love for the Constitution and over their surprising commonalities. Both came from destitution. Both were self-educated and self-made men. Both...

23

Presidential courage : brave leaders and how they changed America, 1789-1989
Beschloss, Michael R.
Paper Book
From the author Newsweek called the nations leading presidential historian comes an inspiring narrative chronicling the crucial moments when a courageous president has dramatically changed the future of the United States. of full-color photos.

24

The presidents club : inside the world's most exclusive fraternity
Gibbs, Nancy
Paper Book
The bestselling authors of The Preacher and the Presidents return with a riveting new history of the private relationships among the last thirteen presidents, uncovering and exploring the partnerships, private deals, rescue missions, and rivalries of those few men who served as commander...

25

The problem of democracy : the Presidents Adams confront the cult of personality
Isenberg, Nancy
Paper Book
"Told with authority and style. . . Crisply summarizing the Adamses' legacy, the authors stress principle over partisanship."--The Wall Street Journal How the father and son presidents foresaw the rise of the cult of personality and fought those who sought to abuse the...

26

Revolutionary brothers : Thomas Jefferson, the Marquis de Lafayette, and the friendship that helped forge two nations
Chaffin, Tom
Paper Book
In a narrative both panoramic and intimate, Tom Chaffin captures the four-decade friendship of Thomas Jefferson and the Marquis de Lafayette. Thomas Jefferson and the Marquis de Lafayette shared a singularly extraordinary friendship, one involved in the making of two...

27

Travels with George : in search of Washington and his legacy
Philbrick, Nathaniel
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "Travels with George . . . is quintessential Philbrick--a lively, courageous, and masterful achievement." --The Boston Globe   Does George Washington still matter? Bestselling author Nathaniel Philbrick argues for...

28

Tried by war : Abraham Lincoln as commander in chief
McPherson, James M.
Paper Book
James McPherson, a bestselling historian of the Civil War, illuminates how Lincoln worked with—and often against— his senior commanders to defeat the Confederacy and create the role of commander in chief as we know it. Though Abraham Lincoln arrived at the White House with no previous military...

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