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.
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.”
Then again: Seymour Hersh - Wikipedia
davidmich, you might also want to check out this thread: The President Elimination Game - The Game Room - Straight Dope Message Board
Well, now I feel better for not reading it. 
I second this recommendation. Remini is the preeminent Jackson scholar. There is also a one-volume, condensed version of his work, but I haven’t read that.
Also worth reading by Remini is Andrew Jackson and His Indian Wars. It helps bring you to an understanding of what was going on in Jackson’s head on the subject of Indian removal.
Spoke, Pravnik, Elendil’s Heir, septimus, Captain Amazing. Thank you all. Just what I was looking for.
david
Any suggestions on Woodrow Wilson?
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.
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”.
Wow. That surprises me. What’d she do wrong, in his opinion?
I have to say, for the sake of completeness, I wish they would. There’s plenty to cover in his pre-White House life.
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”.
They would and they did, a year ago.
We’ve been through this discussion before. From that same Wikipedia article:
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?
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.
septimus writes:
> BTW, Mr. Heir, have you read Hersh’s book?
Please, no need to be so formal. Just call him “Elendil’s”.
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
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. 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
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.
I had no idea - thanks.
Ah, good to know. Thanks.
I’ve read other stuff by Hersh, but not that.
People call me all kinds of things.
See post 30.