Hi,
I’ve set myself the task of reading about all the US Presidents. I would appreciate your feedback on authors you would recommend starting with George Washington. One commenter suggested Ron Chernow’s “Washington: A Life.” I should add that I’m looking for biographies that are as comprehensive as possible, and written by authoritative, well-known and/or respected scholars. I look forward to your feedback.
davidmich
I’ve sent a message to the moderators that this thread ought to be in In My Humble Opinion
If you’d like to read about the Presidents in a single uniform set of biographies, you might want to read the American Presidents Series from Times Books:
http://www.amazon.com/American-Presidents-Series/lm/R1Y5IA8HUDNANU
They haven’t got around to six of the Presidents yet and aren’t going to do William Henry Harrison since he was only President for a month.
Read David MCcollough’s bios of John Adams and Harry Truman.
History Channel has a series The Presidents thats a very good start. 3 dvds.
It runs on the History Channel every now and then. Really good information on all 43 Presidents.
Then books on the Presidents gives even more details. Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book on Franklin Roosevelt is a must read. It won the Pulitzer Prize.
David McCullough 's books on John Adams and Truman both won the Pulitzer Prize. I’ve read them and highly recomend.
I almost forgot Stephen E. Ambrose’s single Vol book on Eisenhower. Loved this one.
McCullough/Stephen E. Ambrose are on my list. I didn’t know about Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book on Franklin Roosevelt. Thanks for the tip. I’ll look that one up too.
Thank you all. What about Walter Isaacson on Benjamin Franklin and John Meacham on Thomas Jefferson.?
Feel free to suggest other biographers. Thanks.
davidmich
I bought and read this book a while ago, it’s pretty good. It looks there’s a new edition, hot off the press.
Here’s a link to an older edition, where you can see it has generally good reviews:
I enjoyed Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Thomas Flexner. It is a condensation of his 4-volume biography.
Thanks Wendelll Wagner and Darth Panda. Interesting. I’ll add those to my list too. What are the most definitive biographies of Lincoln to date? I’d be very interested.
thanks.
davidmich
If you’d like to read about the Presidents in a single uniform set of biographies, you might want to read the American Presidents Series from Times Books:
This is a very good series. I have them all. They are good to get an overall feel for the men.
Another vote for David McCullough 's book on Truman - excellent read.
Whilst I realise he was never president, I found Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Issacson a very good and informative read, and would recommend it for insight into others around him who were.
Franklin is usually considered one of the founding fathers, but I hope you realize that he was never President.
Not of the US, anyway. A quick look on Wikipedia shows that he was the 6th President of Pennsylvania, from 1785-88. Ignorance fought!
An excellent biography of Warren G. Harding is the biography of his wife: Florence Harding: The First Lady, the Jazz Age, and the Death of America’s Most Scandalous President. It covers Warren as a matter of course and portrays his personal life – which makes Andrew Weiner seem celibate.
One neat point: I had heard the quote from Harding’s father, “If you were a girl, Warren, you’d be in the family way all the time. You can’t say No.” I wondered how anyone knew that. It turned out Warren quoted it himself, while giving a speech at a dinner.
Biographies of Founding fathers can be very useful as a reference to early presidents. So I feel I should read them too. Just to clarify.
davidmich
Yes, definitely. I just finished it. One of the best one-volume bios of Washington I’ve ever read.
And this is the other! See also Cincinnatus by Garry Wills for an intriguing look at Washington in the context of the Enlightenment, and Founding Father by Richard Brookhiser for a very engaging explanation of why Washington is honored today without being fully understood.
For the Civil War President, I’d wholeheartedly recommend Lincoln by David Herbert Donald. Rich, detailed but very readable.
I’ve heard good things about American Sphinx, Joseph Ellis’s bio of Jefferson, but haven’t read it (I don’t have a high opinion of Jefferson).
Edmund Morris’s trilogy on Theodore Roosevelt (The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Rex and Colonel Roosevelt) is both masterful and fun.
I agree, you can’t go wrong with Truman by David McCullough (who went to my high school, years before me).
Kennedy by Theodore Sorensen is a readable, detailed bio of JFK with a surprising number of funny stories; Kennedy’s Wars by Lawrence Freedman is a very good examination of the foreign policy crises which JFK faced and largely overcame.
Robert Caro’s ongoing series on Lyndon Johnson, which now includes four books beginning with The Path to Power and may stretch to five or even six books, is quite good.
See also Joseph Ellis’s Founding Brothers, for which he won the Pulitzer, for a brief but very good profile of the major Framers, including several Presidents, in their relationships with each other as friends, rivals and either political allies or foes.
Thank you Elendil’s Heir. Very helpful. That will certainly cover a lot of ground.
I’m also interested in the less popular presidents, notably Andrew Jackson. Also Rutherford B. Hayes, because of the constitutional crisis that evolved during the Hayes v. Samuel Tilden election. Looking forward to more of your feedback. Thanks.
davidmich
I think most historians will tell you that Robert Caro is writing the definitive Lyndon Johnson biography. It’s a great work but it is a multi-volume set - and the final volume hasn’t been published yet.
The Years of Lyndon Johnson
*The Path to Power
*Means of Ascent
*Master of the Senate
*The Passage of Power
*fifth volume will be published some time around 2016