American Heritage: The Presidents

by Michael R. Beschloss

• ISBN13: 9780743475006
• ISBN10: 0743475003
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2003-05-20
• Publisher: I Books

Summary

There are some things we cannot know about presidents until many years after they leave office -- what really went on behind the scenes and how great their leadership was. That is the mission of this remarkable book. American Heritage is known and trusted for its standard-bearing single-volume histories. Its editions on the American Civil War and World War II, edited by such distinguished scholars as James McPherson and Stephen Ambrose, are recognized classics. American Heritage The Presidents is a richly illustrated edition, with America's preeminent presidential historian Michael Beschloss as general editor. This book offers fresh and penetrating portraits of all the presidencies, as rendered by some of America's most distinguished scholars, including a look at the first part of the George W. Bush administration.

Author Biography

Michael Beschloss has been described by Newsweek as "the nation's leading presidential historian." He is the author of seven critically acclaimed books on American presidents, Beschloss is a frequent lecturer and regular commentator on PBS's The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

Table of Contents

Introduction	9	(8)
Michael Beschloss
Father of His Country	17	(18)
George Washington
Following in the Footsteps	35	(14)
John Adams
Renaissance Leader	49	(16)
Thomas Jefferson
The Nation Builder	65	(12)
James Madison
The Era of Good Feelings	77	(12)
James Monroe
Born to Lead	89	(10)
John Quincy Adams
Old Hickory	99	(16)
Andrew Jackson
The Red Fox	115	(10)
Martin Van Buren
Old Tippecanoe	125	(8)
William Henry Harrison
``His Accidency''	133	(8)
John Tyler
The Dark Horse	141	(12)
James Knox Polk
Old Rough-and-Ready	153	(8)
Zachary Taylor
Forgotten Leader	161	(10)
Millard Fillmore
Overwhelmed by Events	171	(8)
Franklin Pierce
An American Nero	179	(10)
James Buchanan
The Great Emancipator	189	(20)
Abraham Lincoln
Between North and South	209	(12)
Andrew Johnson
The Hero as Politician	221	(14)
Ulysses Simpson Grant
Striving for a Fresh Start	235	(12)
Rutherford Birchard Hayes
The Preacher	247	(8)
James Abram Garfield
The Self-Reformer	255	(10)
Chester Alan Arthur
The Law Man	265	(12)
Grover Cleveland
Presidential Grandson	277	(12)
Benjamin Harrison
Bridge to a New Century	289	(10)
William McKinley
The Giant in the Bully Pulpit	299	(14)
Theodore Roosevelt
Reluctant Leader	313	(8)
William Howard Taft
Prophet without Honor	321	(14)
Woodrow Wilson
A Babbitt in the White House	335	(6)
Warren Gamaliel Harding
The New Englander	341	(10)
Calvin Coolidge
The Great Engineer	351	(10)
Herbert Clark Hoover
New Dealer and Global Warrior	361	(14)
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
The Buck Stopped Here	375	(14)
Harry S. Truman
``I Like Ike''	389	(12)
Dwight David Eisenhower
Inspiring a Generation	401	(14)
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
So Close to Greatness	415	(12)
Lyndon Baines Johnson
The Road to Watergate	427	(12)
Richard Milhous Nixon
A Time for Healing	439	(10)
Gerald Rudolph Ford
``Not a Politician''	449	(12)
James Earl Carter
The Great Communicator	461	(14)
Ronald Wilson Reagan
The Last Cold Warrior	475	(10)
George Herbert Walker Bush
Prosperity and Turmoil	485	(11)
William Jefferson Clinton
Crisis and Challenge	496	(7)
George W. Bush
Related Websites	503