# Biographies of all US Presidents **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 7, 2013, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biographies-of-all-us-presidents/665564 "2013-08-07T07:24:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biographies-of-all-us-presidents/665564/41 "2013-08-08T01:10:03Z")
For Reagan, I liked Garry Wills’s _Reagan’s America: Innocents at Home_, which did a pretty good job tracing Reagan’s political policies to his Midwestern upbringing and inherent good cheer. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biographies-of-all-us-presidents/665564/42 "2013-08-08T01:39:24Z")
> [@davidmich](#): > > Good biographies take on difficult, sensitive issues, and that’s what I look forward to in a biography. In that case, you definitely want to read a bio of JFK by someone other than his sycophants. Seymour Hersh, ISTM, is “authoritative, well-known and/or respected” and is no right-wing hack. His _The Dark Side of Camelot_ infuriates JFK’s fans but AFAIK most of its charges have never been really refuted. JFK was an important and successful President, but it is dishonest to ignore his “dark side.” ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biographies-of-all-us-presidents/665564/43 "2013-08-08T02:16:16Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > In that case, you definitely want to read a bio of JFK by someone other than his sycophants. Seymour Hersh, ISTM, is “authoritative, well-known and/or respected” and is no right-wing hack. His _The Dark Side of Camelot_ infuriates JFK’s fans but AFAIK most of its charges have never been really refuted… Then again: [Seymour Hersh - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour_Hersh#Kennedy_research) **davidmich** , you might also want to check out this thread: [The President Elimination Game - The Game Room - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=533286) ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biographies-of-all-us-presidents/665564/44 "2013-08-08T03:03:34Z")
> [@Deeg](#): > > I must be one of the few people who didn’t like that book. I thought it spent way too much time on a near-sex scandal (I forget now what it was) and stopped reading it. If “People” magazine ever put out a Presidential series it’ll be the first one. Well, now I feel better for not reading it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biographies-of-all-us-presidents/665564/45 "2013-08-08T03:26:24Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > I’d say that if you want a Jackson biography, you should go with Robert Remini’s three volume Jackson bio. I second this recommendation. Remini is the preeminent Jackson scholar. There is also a [one-volume, condensed version of his work](http://www.amazon.com/Life-Andrew-Jackson-Robert-Remini/dp/0060159049/ref=sr_1_17?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375932287&sr=1-17&keywords=robert+v.+remini), but I haven’t read that. Also worth reading by Remini is [Andrew Jackson and His Indian Wars](http://www.amazon.com/Andrew-Jackson-His-Indian-Wars/dp/0670910252/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375932229&sr=1-4&keywords=robert+v.+remini). It helps bring you to an understanding of what was going on in Jackson’s head on the subject of Indian removal. ---
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biographies-of-all-us-presidents/665564/46 "2013-08-08T04:32:13Z")
Spoke, Pravnik, Elendil’s Heir, septimus, Captain Amazing. Thank you all. Just what I was looking for. david ---
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biographies-of-all-us-presidents/665564/47 "2013-08-08T04:33:28Z")
Any suggestions on Woodrow Wilson? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biographies-of-all-us-presidents/665564/48 "2013-08-08T19:26:36Z")
John Milton Cooper Jr.'s recent bio _Woodrow Wilson: A Biography_ is OK. I’ve consulted it but haven’t read it cover to cover. Arthur S. Link was, for many years, the recognized Wilson guru. He edited Wilson’s papers and wrote extensively on him, including a five-volume bio. For a less daunting read, try _Woodrow Wilson: Revolution, War, and Peace_. Fun fact: A young Woodrow Wilson, age 8, saw captured Confederate President Jefferson Davis led through his Virginia hometown in 1865 in irons. ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biographies-of-all-us-presidents/665564/49 "2013-08-08T19:50:27Z")
I liked Remini’s single-volume book on Jackson. I wasn’t quite ready to tackle the three-volume set. _John Quincy Adams: A Public Life, a Private Life_, by Paul Nagel. I liked it, but it’s a very personal biography of JQA, based largely on his diaries, and contains a bare minimum of historical background. Nagel provides the most negative view of Abigail Adams I’ve ever read, calling her “a calamity as a mother”. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biographies-of-all-us-presidents/665564/50 "2013-08-08T19:53:02Z")
> [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](#): > > …Nagel provides the most negative view of Abigail Adams I’ve ever read, calling her “a calamity as a mother”. Wow. That surprises me. What’d she do wrong, in his opinion? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biographies-of-all-us-presidents/665564/51 "2013-08-08T19:58:50Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > …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. I have to say, for the sake of completeness, I wish they would. There’s plenty to cover in his pre-White House life. ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biographies-of-all-us-presidents/665564/52 "2013-08-08T20:28:07Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Wow. That surprises me. What’d she do wrong, in his opinion? My notes on Goodreads say: ‘Quite a negative portrayal of Abigail Adams. She was “a calamity as a mother… seeking to instill in her children her own ambitions and apprehensions.” Her “badgering” of JQA “made blatantly evident her need to dominate”. She “made no effort to hide her condescending attitude toward males.” Author says Abigail was afraid her children would turn out like her no-good alcoholic brother.’ His parents both put a lot of pressure on him. He didn’t really want to become a lawyer in the first place - of course, he seems to have wanted to spend his life writing poetry and going to the theater, which wasn’t practical. Nagel only spends a single chapter on JQA’s miserable presidency, calling it a “hapless failure and best forgotten”. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biographies-of-all-us-presidents/665564/53 "2013-08-08T21:26:49Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I have to say, for the sake of completeness, I wish they would. There’s plenty to cover in his pre-White House life. [They would and they did](http://www.amazon.com/William-Henry-Harrison-Presidents-President/dp/0805091181), a year ago. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biographies-of-all-us-presidents/665564/54 "2013-08-08T22:14:41Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Then again: [Seymour Hersh - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour_Hersh#Kennedy_research) We’ve been through this discussion before. From that same Wikipedia article: > [@](#): > > David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, maintains that he is aware of the identity of all of Hersh’s unnamed sources, telling the Columbia Journalism Review that “I know every single source that is in his pieces… Every ‘retired intelligence officer,’ every general with reason to know, and all those phrases that one has to use, alas, by necessity, I say, ‘Who is it? What’s his interest?’ We talk it through.” Hersh is a well-known award-winning journalist (as is Remnick quoted above). Hersh was a major exposer of both My Lai and Au Ghraib. The book’s most substantive charges against JFK regard his cynical foreign-policy decisions. Hersh’s detractors ignore those, preferring to focus on a few of the womanizing cases with least evidence. BTW, Mr. Heir, have you read Hersh’s book? ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biographies-of-all-us-presidents/665564/55 "2013-08-09T02:04:28Z")
Hmm, that list I linked to was out of date. They’ve filled in some of the gaps. There are now Millard Fillmore, William Henry Harrison, John Kennedy, and Jimmy Carter volumes. They’ve yet to do Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, or Barack Obama. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biographies-of-all-us-presidents/665564/56 "2013-08-09T02:06:27Z")
septimus writes: \> BTW, Mr. Heir, have you read Hersh’s book? Please, no need to be so formal. Just call him “Elendil’s”. ---
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biographies-of-all-us-presidents/665564/57 "2013-08-09T08:16:23Z")
What about Teddy Roosevelt? What are some of the more recent scholarly/authoritative biographies on him. I’m particularly interested in his Pacific Rim (i.e. towards Japan) foreign policy. davidmich ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biographies-of-all-us-presidents/665564/58 "2013-08-09T11:04:44Z")
I know it’s been mentioned, but Caro’s series on Lyndon Johnson is as solid a presidential biography as there is. Not only because Johnson is a fascinating subject, but Caro’s writing ability makes it read like a novel. I am just hitting the homestretch of [Volume I](http://www.amazon.com/Power-Years-Lyndon-Johnson-Volume/dp/0679729453/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376045726&sr=8-1&keywords=lyndon+johnson+path+to+power). From the very beginning, when Caro describes LBJ’s ancestors’ series of bad decisions that led them to settle in Texas, it is a gripping read. mmm ---
**Author:** ![lawbuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/13edae/32.png) [@lawbuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawbuff)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biographies-of-all-us-presidents/665564/59 "2013-08-09T13:20:01Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > 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. Born in Virginia, but Ohio claims him also as a native, as he moved here in toddler age. One of 5 President’s buried in Ohio, but he has NO Home standing in Ohio. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biographies-of-all-us-presidents/665564/60 "2013-08-09T15:03:18Z")
> [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](#): > > My notes on Goodreads say: > 'Quite a negative portrayal of Abigail Adams… I had no idea - thanks. > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > [They would and they did](http://www.amazon.com/William-Henry-Harrison-Presidents-President/dp/0805091181), a year ago. Ah, good to know. Thanks. > [@septimus](#): > > …BTW, Mr. Heir, have you read Hersh’s book? I’ve read other stuff by Hersh, but not that. > [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > …Please, no need to be so formal. Just call him “Elendil’s”. People call me all kinds of things. > [@davidmich](#): > > What about Teddy Roosevelt? What are some of the more recent scholarly/authoritative biographies on him. I’m particularly interested in his Pacific Rim (i.e. towards Japan) foreign policy. > davidmich See post 30. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biographies-of-all-us-presidents/665564.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biographies-of-all-us-presidents/665564.md?page=4)