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.
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...
My life /
Clinton, Bill,
Paper Book
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.
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 :
Goodwin, Doris Kearns
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...
Theodore Rex /
Morris, Edmund
Paper Book
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,...
The rise of Theodore Roosevelt /
Morris, Edmund
Paper Book
Lincoln /
Donald, David Herbert,
Paper Book
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.
Paper Book
An unfinished life :
Dallek, Robert
Paper Book
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.
Paper Book
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 :
Ellis, Joseph J.
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...
FDR /
Smith, Jean Edward
Paper Book
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 :
Meacham, Jon.
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 :
Chernow, Ron
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 /
Chernow, Ron
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<...
The remarkable education of John Quincy Adams /
Levin, Phyllis Lee
Paper Book
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....
Grover Cleveland: A Study in Character
Alyn Brodsky
Paper Book
Grover Cleveland: A Study in Characteris the first comprehensive study of our 22nd and 24th president in nearly seventy years. This distinguished leader, the only Democrat elected to the presidency between the Civil War and World War I, rose to political prominence through the ranks of mayor of...
Eisenhower :
Smith, Jean Edward
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...
Richard Nixon: The Life
John A. Farrell
Paper Book
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
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...
When character was king :
Noonan, Peggy,
Paper Book
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
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 /
Caro, Robert A.
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE, THE MARK LYNTON HISTORY PRIZE, THE AMERICAN HISTORY BOOK PRIZE One of the New York Times's 100 Best Books of the 21st Century Book Four of Robert A. Caro's...

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