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
David McCullough
Paper Book
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...
Truman
David McCullough
Paper Book
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
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Paper Book
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...
An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963
Robert Dallek
Paper Book
Drawing on previously unavailable material and never-before-opened archives, An Unfinished Life is packed with revelations large and small -- about JFK's health, his love affairs, RFK's appointment as Attorney General, what Joseph Kennedy did to help his son win the White House, and the...
His Excellency: George Washington
Joseph J. Ellis
Paper Book
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...
American Lion
Jon Meacham
Paper Book
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
Ron Chernow
Paper Book
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
Jon Meacham
Paper Book
#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...
Grant
Ron Chernow
Paper Book
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<...
Eisenhower in War and Peace
Jean Edward Smith
Paper Book
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...
His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life
Jonathan Alter
Paper Book
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...
Destiny and Power The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush
Jon Meacham
Paper Book
#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:...
The Passage of Power
Robert A. Caro
Audiobook
The Passage of Power follows Lyndon Johnson through both the most frustrating and the most triumphant periods of his career -- 1958 to 1964. It is a time that would see him trade the extraordinary power he had created for himself as Senate Majority Leader for what became the wretched powerlessness...

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