To the Best of My Ability: The American Presidents

by James M. McPherson; David Rubel

• ISBN13: 9780789450739
• ISBN10: 0789450739
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-07-31
• Publisher: DK Publishing, Inc.

Summary

An engaging look at the 42 men who have served as President.

Author Biography

James M. McPherson is George Henry Davis '86 Professor of American History at Princeton University, where he has taught since 1962. He is the author of a dozen books, mostly on the era of the American Civil War. His Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era won the Pulitzer Prize in History in 1989, and his For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War won the Lincoln Prize in 1998

Table of Contents

Introduction	7	(11)
James M. McPherson
The Presidents	11	(298)
George Washington	12	(10)
Gordon S. Wood
John Adams	22	(6)
James M. Banner, Jr.
Thomas Jefferson	28	(8)
Joseph J. Ellis
James Madison	36	(8)
Jack N. Rakove
James Monroe	44	(6)
Jack N. Rakove
John Quincy Adams	50	(6)
John Patrick Diggins
Andrew Jackson	56	(10)
Robert V. Remini
Martin Van Buren	66	(6)
Richard M. Pious
William Henry Harrison	72	(6)
Daniel Walker Howe
John Tyler	78	(6)
Richard M. Pious
James K. Polk	84	(8)
Thomas Fleming
Zachary Taylor	92	(6)
Catherine Clinton
Millard Fillmore	98	(6)
Jean Harvey Baker
Franklin Pierce	104	(6)
James A. Rawley
James Buchanan	110	(8)
Jean Harvey Baker
Abraham Lincoln	118	(8)
James M. McPherson
Andrew Johnson	126	(6)
Hans L. Trefousse
Ulysses S. Grant	132	(8)
Michael Les Benedict
Rutherford B. Hayes	140	(6)
James A. Rawley
James A. Garfield	146	(8)
Ari Hoogenboom
Chester A. Arthur	154	(6)
Bernard A. Weisberger
Grover Cleveland	160	(8)
Vincent P. De Santis
Benjamin Harrison	168	(6)
Catherine Clinton
William McKinley	174	(6)
Morton Keller
Theodore Roosevelt	180	(8)
Allen Weinstein
William Howard Taft	188	(8)
Mark C. Carnes
Woodrow Wilson	196	(10)
James Chace
Warren G. Harding	206	(6)
Morton Keller
Calvin Coolidge	212	(6)
Robert Cowley
Herbert Hoover	218	(6)
Robert Dallek
Franklin D. Roosevelt	224	(10)
Susan Ware
Harry S. Truman	234	(8)
Allen Weinstein
Dwight D. Eisenhower	242	(8)
Herbert S. Parmet
John F. Kennedy	250	(8)
Richard Reeves
Lyndon B. Johnson	258	(8)
Robert Dallek
Richard M. Nixon	266	(8)
Tom Wicker
Gerald R. Ford	274	(8)
Laura Kalman
Jimmy Carter	282	(6)
Douglas Brinkley
Ronald Reagan	288	(8)
James T. Patterson
George Bush	296	(6)
Herbert S. Parmet
Bill Clinton	302	(7)
Evan Thomas
The Campaigns and Inaugural Addresses	309	(147)
About the Contributors	456	(3)
Index	459	(20)
Photo Credits	479