The American President: From Teddy Roosevelt to Bill Clinton

by William E. Leuchtenburg

The American President is an enthralling account of American presidential actions from the assassination of William McKinley in 1901 to Bill Clinton's last night in office in January 2001. William Leuchtenburg, one of the great presidential historians of the century, portrays each of the presidents in a chronicle sparkling with anecdote and wit.

Leuchtenburg offers a nuanced assessment of their conduct in office, preoccupations, and temperament. His book presents countless moments of high drama: FDR hurling defiance at the "economic royalists" who exploited the poor; ratcheting tension for JFK as Soviet vessels approach an American naval blockade; a grievously wounded Reagan joking with nurses while fighting for his life.

This book charts the enormous growth of presidential power from its lowly state in the late nineteenth century to the imperial presidency of the twentieth. That striking change was manifested both at home in periods of progressive reform and abroad, notably in two world wars, Vietnam, and the war on terror.

Leuchtenburg sheds light on presidents battling with contradictory forces. Caught between maintaining their reputation and executing their goals, many practiced deceits that shape their image today. But he also reveals how the country's leaders pulled off magnificent achievements worthy of the nation's pride.

Genres: History, Politics, Nonfiction, Biography, Us Presidents, American History, American

886 pages, Hardcover

First published December 3, 2015

About the author

William Edward Leuchtenburg was an American historian who was the William Rand Kenan Jr. Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a leading scholar of the life and career of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Reviews

[Stian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Note: this is long, digressive, heavy on quotations, and mostly just for fun.

I often pick this book up and flick through it, re-read a few parts, and try to just freshen up my memory a little bit. It's sort of sobering but also strangely reassuring to remember that the circus and travesty that we see today isn't actually that new. Have a look at this:

U.S. Grant did not turn up for work until ten in the morning, and he ended his day at three to take a carriage ride. For weeks at a time, he was not in Washington but at his seaside retreat in Long Beach, New Jersey. Chester Arthur sat at his desk only from ten to four. He took Sundays off and gave himself Monday holidays too. A White House clerk later said that Arthur "never did today what he could put off until tomorrow" (15).

But surely things got better as presidential power grew and, no longer "dwarfed by congress and denied respect" (16), the president wielded genuine power? Surely, the right public figures would be elected then. Well, let's fast-forward to Reagan:

"Reagan," his principal biographer, Lou Cannon, has written, "may have been the one president in the history of the republic who saw his election as a chance to get some rest." (He spent nearly a full year of his tenure not in the White House but at his Rancho del Cielo in the hills above Santa Barbara.) Cabinet officals had to accommodate themselves to Reagan's slumbering during discussions of pressing issues, and on a multination European trip, he nodded off so often at meetings with heads of state, among them French president Francois Mitterand, that reporters, borrowing the title of a film noir, designated the journey "The Big Sleep."He even dozed during a televised audience at the Vatican while the pope was speaking to him. A satirist lampooned Reagan by transmuting Dolly Parton's "Workin' 9 to 5" into "Working 9 to 10," and TV's Johnny Carson quipped, "There are only two reasons you wake President Reagan: World War III and if Hellcats of the Navy is on the Late Show" (587-588).

As Reagan himself put it: "It's true that hard work never killed anybody, but why take the chance?" Fair play to him - we're of the same ilk here at least. But come on, man, you've got to do better than this:

The Tower Comission found it all but impossible to lasso Reagan. His testimony was so incoherent that some commentators wondered again whether he was suffering from early onset of Alzheimer's disease. In his first appearance before the commission, he stunned his aides by saying that he had been fully aware of the shipments of arms to Iran, something that they, to protect him, had been denying. On the eve of his return to testify a second time, they prepared him as though he were a particularly dense pupil. When on one occasion he was asked to clarify an inconsistency, he picked up the briefing memo they had given him and read out: "If the question comes up at the Tower board meeting, you might want to say that you were surprised." The president's White House counsel later wrote of this extraordinary blunder: "I was horrified, just horrified" (649-650).

Dude, come on.

But Reagan has become the flag-bearer of so many New Right movements around the world; even here in Norway there's a bastion of the old guard on the right that looks up to this dude. Surely, there's something that he did that was good, right? Alright - the national debt tripled; he piled up more debt than all of his predeccesors combined; the distribution of wealth floated upwards: "... the income of the wealthiest fifth of the nation improved 19 percent, while that of the lowest fifth dropped by nearly 12 percent"; and "... at the end of his presidency, one out of five children -- fully half of all black children -- lived in poverty, several thousands more than when he took office. When he stepped down, an American-born child was two to three times more likely to be impoverished than one born in Canada" (667).

So grotesque levels of income inequality isn't anything new either. But let's rewind a bit, and go to John F. Kennedy -- everybody's favourite. Charming, eloquent, and lovely, right? Well, in a conversation with Richard Nixon, he said that it "really is true that foreign affairs is the only important issue for a president to handle," and, "I mean who gives a shit if the minimum wage is $1.15 or $1.25, in comparison to something like this?" (389) Oh, and these "grab them by the pussy" macho attitudes stem from somewhere: "During his prep school days, he had referred to them [women] as "meat," and he never outgrew that attitude" (421). But it says a lot that Kennedy is still such a beloved figure in the minds of many Americans. However, in a 1988 poll of seventy-five historians and journalists, he was rated as "the most overrated public figure in American history" (423). But of course -- public image is more important.

There's an interesting section on Nixon as well, and I wonder how this would have been phrased had Leuchtenburg written this book today:

No other administration in the two hundred years of the republic has ever committed so many gross transgressions. One account catalogued the crimes on Nixon and his apointees: burglary, forgery, illegal wiretapping, illegal electronic surveillance, perjury, subornation of perjury, obstruction of justice, destruction of evidence, tampering with witnesses, misprision of felony, bribery, and conspiracy to involve government agencies in illegal action. More than seventy men were convicted or pled guilty -- among them cabinet officals, including the country's chief law officer" (538).

Maybe this goes on to help explain some things, and to diagnose some of the problems. Nixon planted seeds - now deep-seated roots - of mistrust in American government, a distrust already begun under Johnson, now "crystallized" in Nixon. Quoting Alexander Haig: "I wish that Watergate would be a footnote, but Nixon will always be remembered for it because the event had such major historic consequences for the country: a fundamental discrediting of respect for the presidency..." (539).

And speaking of disrespecting the presidency: enter Bill Clinton. This stuff is obviously well-known, but man -- the details are spicy. "Over the course of sixteen months" Billy-boy and Monica got together for sex, with "some of these encounters" taking place "when the first lady was upstairs in the family quarters" (769). And then there's this, from the same page:

On Easter Sunday, the president, after attending church with his wife, went back to the White House to receive oral sex while he was on the phone with a US senator. In a curious sort of punctilio, Clinton forbade Lewinsky to bring him to climax, apparently reasoning that by denying himself that pleasure, he was not actually engaged in illicit sexual episodes that could be regarded as disloyalty to his wife."

Damn dude.

But okay -- I could probably go on and on with this 'review', picking (cherrypicking?) a bit here and there, but I'd just advise you to read the book yourself: you will gain a ton of knowledge. Though it obviously doesn't show from what I've written above, Leuchtenburg does a wonderful job and both highlights positive aspects of the presidents (where it can be done, anyway), and all the negative ones. It's just that I found the book most fascinating when it really exposed the presidents as seriously flawed human beings -- which they are.

And as I wrote in the beginning, there's something sobering about that aspect, because somehow the world keeps spinning and things kind of keep limping along. And I guess it's worthwhile to hold on to at least a shred or scrap of optimism, or some kind of optimism anyway. Probably I'm just really a little influenced by having recently read Essays in Idleness and Hôjôki and seeing so many similarities in the life and observations of Japanese Buddhist monks ca. 1300 that can be applied to today. Also sobering.

This too shall pass, as they say.

[Julian Douglass · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a story of the presidency from TR to Bill Clinton. This book serves as a dual biography. In one part, it tells the story of the expansion of the office and how each president viewed the executive office. Mr. Leuchtenburg showed the growth of the office and all the idiosyncrasies that each executive employed during their tenure.

The other part is a spark notes version of each of their presidencies. This is by no mean a full biography of them, this only covers the time they are in office, and there are better books that go into greater detail on their lives and time in office, but it gives the reader a good summary of their time in the White House. The end of each chapter offers some historical perspective of each one, which can be argued till the end of time.

Overall, an ambitious, and great project to show the growth of the executive branch from the turn of the 20th century till today.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating in that it does a good job of reviewing each side of 17 Presidents - the good, the bad and the unforgivably ugly. I first learned of this book from an excerpt about Reagan that was posted on Salon.com. Given that, I was fully prepared to go into this monumental tome and just hear slams on Republicans and glowing reviews of the non-Republicans.

I am relieved to report that I was proven wrong. This shattered a couple of my previously concrete ideas about each of the Presidents reviewed and, in the ensuing rubble, I found new (to me) details about the office and powers of the U.S. President. It's interesting to see how history repeats itself in the men that we have elected to the highest office in the land. While it's true we might not have seen the end of Nixon-like Presidents, there's also hope that we can expect to have a couple of the other kinds as well.

If you're bored with the usual thinking of U.S. Presidents as great/good/meh/bad, read this book. I think you'll find that with the exception of Nixon, the rest of these 17 Presidents were intriguingly gray. It's certainly worth carting back and forth on the train every day and hearing from random strangers, "Dayyyum that's a HUUUUGE book!" Seriously - 812 pages - not exactly beach reading.

[Patrick Sobkowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful survey text of the development of the presidency from the turn of the 20c to Bill Clinton. Highly recommended.

[Deanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book.

Many books about history show a small area of history, without explaining the events leading up to that time period. It creates a disconnected feel to an understanding of history. History is a progression of events. Sometimes happening over decades.

Leuchtenberg clearly shows the progression of events, from the late 19th century to today, which moved the presidency from a limited, relatively powerless position to a position of great power and prestige.

The appeal of The American President is that it does not require a thorough grounding in history to be understood and enjoyed. Leuchtenberg provides the relevant information without overwhelming the reader with TMI. At the same time, the reader receives a thorough grounding in 20th century political history.

Although, he is a presenting a great deal of information, the book is an easy read for anyone with a moderate level of education and vocabulary. Essentially, it is a fun read for history buffs. He manages to bring history to life by giving us personal stories about each of the presidents, but still gives the reader all of the information about the political events.

I would give a srong recommendation for this book. It should be in the permanent library of anyone interested in U.S. political history.

[Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent and broad-ranging survey of 110+ years of presidential history, from the time when Washington DC was still considered a muddy backwater and William McKinley was in office, a time when the presidency was a weak and ineffectual institution, to the era of Bill Clinton. Terrific details, readable but erudite prose, and better still, a determination to work in some theory about presidential change, modernity, and most of all the major expansion of presidential power and the growth of the administrative state. The sprawling hugeness of the subject means that a lot of events and details will have been skimmed or ignored, but that is an inevitable flaw with books of this scope. Best of all, perhaps, is the obsessively and meticulous bibliography, which will permit anyone with the time and energy to pursue all the further reading about individual POTUSes and presidential politics and theory that anyone could ever want. Leuchtenburg is an FDR specialist, so the one problem I would suggest is that he is somewhat less interested in the officeholders that followed Truman, skipping over some details and honing in too closely on minor matters that were not all that relevant from a wide-lens view, and giving the post-WWII period short shrift.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Any history buff, particularly of American politics needs to treat themselves to this treasure trove of information and incite into possibly the most under-appreciated and demanding jobs in the world: The American President. In writing this massive, 752 page work, Leuchtenburg has assembled an incredible portrayal of our nation's leaders.

This heroic effort left me feeling empowered and grateful. It will definitely change your perspective of the men and the office as it/they have progressively changed over time. Society is quick to judge our Presidents in the moment. Only time and context reveal the true meaning and importance of how these great men have written our past and enabled (or disabled) our future.

I received an ARC from the publisher through NetGalley.

[Stan Prager · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review of: The American President: From Teddy Roosevelt to Bill Clinton,
by William E. Leuchtenburg
by Stan Prager (10-16-16)

This review goes to press just three weeks out from the most consequential election in my lifetime, perhaps in the history of the republic. For those who might judge that hyperbolic, consider that a surprising number of eminent historians – including such iconic scholars in the field as David McCullough, Ron Chernow, Harold Holzer, Bernard Weisberger, Joseph Ellis, and Sean Wilentz – have come together on a Facebook page “Historians on Donald Trump” to post video jeremiads as dire warnings against the election in November 2016 of Donald Trump as President of the United States. Add to that list renowned nonagenarian historian William E. Leuchtenburg, Professor Emeritus of History at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, whose own articulate video cautions us in no uncertain terms that: “What’s especially different about Donald Trump is that he is not a patriot. He has no sense of the American past and he doesn’t understand the achievements of this country. He has said we are a third world nation . . . we are not a third world nation! We are the envy of most of the world . . . and Donald Trump has no sense of the glory of the more than two centuries of the American republic or what we can take pride in today.” [full video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YEAP...]
Leuchtenburg, author of a numerous Presidential biographies and other works of American history, knows something about Presidents and seeks to showcase his decades of scholarship in the ambitious yet in many ways deeply flawed epic The American President: From Teddy Roosevelt to Bill Clinton. I have read dozens of Presidential biographies, a favorite genre that if well-executed not only examines the specific figure but lends focus to an entire era of American history. In this election year, I was drawn to Leuchtenburg’s book because it promised a consecutive survey of twentieth century Presidents which presents a connectivity to the Oval Office ever lacking when each chief executive is treated in isolation. The problem, of course, with a single volume approach is even with a truly big book like this – The American President is 812 pages – there simply is not adequate space to do appropriate justice to each figure under consideration, especially when there are seventeen such figures and one of them is the historic giant of the century Franklin Roosevelt, and some of the others include such complex characters as Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and Richard Nixon. Typical “handbooks” of American Presidents end up as little more than a series of Wikipedia-like entries. Leuchtenburg the noted historian aspires to much more than that, and not unexpectedly falls short.
In the end, Leuchtenburg compromises and his portraits are an uneven swirl of careful biographical studies and sometimes awkward editorials which occasionally drift off to little more than polemic that leaves the nuance and complexity so critical to historical studies somewhere way off in the dust. This book has been criticized for not including footnotes, although Leuchtenburg reveals in the prologue that he was specifically asked not to annotate the volume as such. That turns out to be an unshackling convenience for the author as his history is overshadowed by his summary judgement of the White House occupants that he considers. That my own politics and Leuchtenburg’s often coincide – I too find little to praise in the respective tenures of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan -- makes me no less uncomfortable as a historian with the license he grants himself to blatantly and often sweepingly pronounce sentence upon his subjects.
The American President does not start off that way. Indeed, his opening analyses of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson reflect a far more scholarly approach to his subjects, warts and all. He rightly identifies Roosevelt, the accidental President (upon McKinley’s assassination), for playing the pivotal part in the reshaping of the office of POTUS for the twentieth century and expanding the role of the White House in national affairs, something not seen since Lincoln’s days in Washington during the Civil War. And TR in peacetime was in many ways to go far beyond Lincoln during armed insurrection, paving the way for a far more powerful Chief Executive. Without Teddy Roosevelt, the kind of imperial presidencies of a Woodrow Wilson or a Franklin Roosevelt or a Richard Nixon might never have been possible.
The author gives short shrift to Taft, probably deservedly, and cuts corners for the sake of brevity – unfairly I think – by combining Harding, Coolidge and Hoover to a single dismissive chapter. A biographer of FDR in other volumes, Leuchtenburg expertly charts Roosevelt’s impressive accomplishments in leading the nation during the dark days of depression and war, crediting him for much but not failing to identify his various flaws and missteps, including the egregious court-packing attempt and the internment of Japanese-Americans. Next, he attempts to make some sense out of the chaotic Truman era of dramatic peaks and valleys, acclaim and condemnation, although that probably is not achievable in the delimited space allowed. Despite recent revisionist attempts to credit Eisenhower with more than his due, Leuchtenburg concurs with the consensus of historians that other than demonstrating appropriate caution in dangerous times, the popular Ike proved to be a fine general but a rather mediocre President whose two terms can perhaps best be summed up, in Stephen Ambrose’s words, as “the time of the great postponement,” because Eisenhower’s failure to act in so many critical arenas simply kicked the dangerous cans down the road of civil rights, urban decay, poverty and “a Cold War warming toward combustion.” [p385]
It remains somewhat puzzling given Leuchtenburg’s spot-on appraisal of Eisenhower’s legacy that he subsequently cuts John F. Kennedy so little slack and assigns him virtually no credit for juggling the huge basket of crises, both foreign and domestic, that he inherited in a world literally on the brink of catastrophe. JFK had a tragically abbreviated Presidency, but it seems utterly disrespectful to sum it all up in thirty-eight pages, most of it with derision, affording him only half-credit for Al Hunt’s tribute that “Kennedy’s skills may have saved 20 million to 30 million lives” in the Cuban Missile Crisis [p420] while dismissing JFK as “. . . a figure not of chronicle but of myth.” [p424] It is here, in Chapter 7, just about the midway point of this huge volume, where Leuchtenburg can be seen to begin to strain stridently at the leash of the academic and to yank his studied analyses more toward the unbridled and uncertain territory of the polemicist.
Leuchtenburg’s chapter on Lyndon Johnson is predictable and thus disappointing, crediting him with great domestic accomplishments while condemning him for the Southeast Asian adventurism that delivered the Vietnam debacle, without the careful autopsy of a Robert Dallek or a Robert Caro that would more accurately reflect the flaws of a figure of great ego and ambition who whatever his intentions stumbled mightily both home and abroad and whose worst legacy was to open the doors of the White House to Richard Nixon. Leuchtenburg’s chapter on Nixon strips the latter of all complexity and marches a mostly vile cardboard cutout of an unbalanced man past us as he harnesses every ounce of the power of the imperial Presidency once shaped by Theodore Roosevelt for mostly benign purposes and puts it to work like a kind of criminal syndicate to achieve his corrupt and devious ends at all costs. Everything the author presents here is chillingly accurate, but lost in the translation is the brilliance of the man. Nixon was a kind of a demon, but he was nonetheless a far more complicated figure than the evil comic book villain that is showcased on these pages. Again for brevity, and especially unfairly in my opinion, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter are afforded a slim chapter that hardly does either one of them justice. Ronald Reagan earns more space in the volume, but much of it is a paragraph by paragraph revelation of how ill-equipped and unsuited to the office of the Presidency he was. Today, Reagan is lionized on the right and has been mostly forgiven by much of the rest of the political spectrum for his dunderheaded reign, but Leuchtenburg does little to – like Rick Perlstein would gleefully do – wade through the layers of the man and his two administrations to identify why this is fact not editorial. And Leuchtenburg probably unfairly denies Reagan the one accolade he, as Richard Reeves has assessed, most deserves: it was Reagan who broke with his own administration to take Mikhail Gorbachev at his word that the stated intentions of the Soviet Union in the waning days of the Cold War were genuine and not a hostile diversion.
To his credit, it is in the subsequent and final chapters devoted to George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton that Leuchtenburg returns to his earlier more dispassionate approach to history seen in his treatment of TR and Wilson. He analyzes these men for their accomplishments and their failures, and rightly sums up why each stood on the very edges of greatness in office yet failed to achieve that because of their own unique but no less unshakable shortcomings. Finally, Leuchtenburg clearly blames Clinton’s incautious “sexcapades” with contributing to the loss of his successor, Al Gore, and what was to follow. This volume does not contain a chapter on George W. Bush, but there is no question that the author rightly recognizes the disaster of those years by citing editor Michael Takiff’s conclusion that “Bill’s dalliance with Monica [Lewinsky] . . . cost the nation not only what might have been . . . [in the concluding years of the Clinton Administration] . . . but what might have been done, and what was done instead, over the eight years that followed.” [p794] You don’t have to be a historian to recognize the merit in that estimation.
The American President winds up with an unremarkable epilogue, as if after all of those pages the author has simply run out of steam. In a retrospect, as a reader deeply invested in historical studies, I cannot help but wonder if Leuchtenburg’s own life’s trajectory proved to be a critical measure of his approach to this book. Born during the Harding Administration, Leuchtenburg has lived through the Presidencies of all of his subjects save three. Did a lifetime contemporary with the bulk of his protagonists put pressure upon his perspective as an historian and impact upon the appraisals in this volume? Perhaps that is so. Still, the value to this book, faults and all, is that it offers that continuous narrative of the Oval Office and reminds us that each occupant must first of all confront what has been left behind by his predecessor. In these tumultuous times, it is also a cautious reminder that much, much worse things could happen to America than Richard Nixon. As Leuchtenburg concludes in his video on the “Historians on Donald Trump” Facebook page: “When I think of the prospect of a Donald Trump presidency the words of Thomas Jefferson come to mind: ‘I tremble for my country.’”

My review of "The American President: From Teddy Roosevelt to Bill Clinton," by William E. Leuchtenburg is live on my book blog https://regarp.com/2016/10/16/review-...

[J.K. Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating - Put it on your list

Level - Moderate to difficult read, 800+ pages

Summary
This book is kind of unique. I thought I was buying a big book that essentially be a volume of shortish biographies for all the presidents of the 20th century. In a since that is what it is, the presidency from Teddy to Bill. The major difference it is really is focused on each man's presidency more than it is the man himself. There is short biographical into, so to speak, but it really is more a chronicle of their years in office.

It is more than just history that Leuchtenburg write on, the uniqueness comes from his approach of how the presidency changed under each man and overtime. In a way, the book is more a biography/history of the presidency in the 19th century; certainly much more so than a collection of biographies.

My Thoughts
It really is an interesting book. The presidency changed so dramatically from Teddy to Bill, covering those changes and diving into the intricacies of how and when they happened really is a fascinating take on history. For his part, Leuchtenburg is a master historian, but if I had one criticism of him, it is that often it seemed he was going out of his way to find a long, rare word. I fire threw about 50 books a year and write reviews for most of them, so I feel I have a pretty decent vocabulary, but I felt like I had to look up words every few pages or so.

In that sense, the book was a bit academic, but for the most part, his writing is much more of story telling. You can breeze through a surprising amount of pages as he tells the tale of the major shifts in the way the most powerful office in the country has been handled. When you are ready to tackle this book, you better well know, it is not small. Not only is it well over 800 pages, but they are large pages, and densely packed with writing.

All that said, anyone interested in politics or history needs to pick up this book. Hopefully, there are come college classes out there requiring it. The book is a wealth of information and is exceedingly important to see how we got to where we are today with regard to presidential power.

More reviews at MondayMorningTheologian.com

[Craig Wanderer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book took nearly four years to read, not because it's complex or even daunting, but because modern technology often distracted me, nevertheless its a lesson in persistence and I'm a better man for having finished it.
It seemed as if the last three presidencies were hurried and I struggled to understand how he missed key points of Reagans Psychosis and paranoia. Omitted was the Jelley been jar on his desk to which he used to gauge trust of anyone visiting them, if you didn't eat a Jelley bean, he did not trust you.
Absurd.
I felt also that Greenspan was a much more important figure from Nixon to Reagan where he only got a mention of incorrectly being a Republican, he was an avid Libertarian and somehow, despite his economic brilliance, a student of the dim witted Ann Rand.
William would miss a date now and then and at times make simple mistakes that should have been caught, overall however I still learned and it's amazing and humbling to read a book from someone who lived through so many Presidencies he wrote about.

SO thank you very much for your effort and diligence writing this book, It will be both shared with others, and kept in my library for my kids to reference and learn from in the years to come.

[George Hodgson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a remarkable book. Leuchtenburg doesn’t so much grade each president, but presents each President’s successes, his failures, his personal strengths as well as his personal foibles and flaws. And all of this is done with good humour. I was both reminded of many things and more importantly, I learned a great deal. Very, very well done.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very readable and informative. While I found it skipped over some things that I expected to be discussed (the interstate system didn't even get a mention!), it included many details and vignettes about each president that I had never heard before.

[Rebecca Alter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally finished. Interesting and learned much about the American political system as well as information that I was unaware of about the presidents covered in the book. Interesting to read during the recent election!

[Connor Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent review of presidents from TR through Clinton

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good overview of the presidency and how it evolved throughout the 20th century. A good balance between policy and scandal. They all seemed to have some scandal.

[R. P.Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just simply great

This is without a doubt one of the best depictions ever of the twentieth century's presidents and the challenge of twenty first to get it right

[Liam · Rating 4 out of 5]

"'He is the very embodiment of noise.'" (Henry James on TR, 30)

"'The last letter he wrote, like the first that we know of, had to do with birds.'" (David McCullough on TR, 49)

"In fact, Senator Depew was on point in saying that Lodge's mind was like the New England landscape -- 'naturally barren, but highly cultivated.'" (103)

"'FDR was as near to being a king of the world as any president would ever be.'" (Michael Beschloss, 206)

"'Dull, Duller, Dulles.'" (Churchill on Dulles, 336)

"'Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. ... There is a tiny splinter group [of Republicans], of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are ... a few ... Texas oil millionaires and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid.'" (quoting Eisenhower, 344)

"When this 'hot line' began operation, the first reply from Moscow read, 'Please explain what is meant by a quick brown fox jumping over a lazy dog.'" (411)

"The best that a Republican senator from Nebraska could say in defense of Carswell was that 'even if he were mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren't they, and a little chance? We can't have all Brandeises and Franfurters and stuff like that there.'" (484)

"The proportion of African American pupils attending all-black schools in the South fell from 68 percent in 1968 to less than 8 percent in 1972." (488)

"O'Neill, a man of considerable girth, also railed about the meager fare that Carter offered. 'I didn't get this way eating sweet rolls,' he said. 'I want a breakfast, and I'm not coming back until I get a meal!'" (565)

"'Jimmy,' concluded his friend Attorney General Griffin Bell, 'was about as good a president as an engineer could be.'" (576)

"Rolodex President" (of George H.W. Bush's relationship with world leaders, 683)

"'If you see a turtle sitting on top of a fence post,' he [Clinton] was fond of saying, 'it didn't get there by accident.'" (800)

[Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

In general, I have nothing but high praise for this book. The author remains incredibly focused even while tackling incredibly expansive subject matter. He is academic in his language, yet makes complex political issues seem accessible, even to someone like me, who has no great love for politics. He presents both the good and the bad in each president's career for the reader's consideration, keeping political slant and bias out of it and allowing the reader to gain a comprehensive perspective of how each man shaped the role of president.

With one notable exception.

The man clearly hated Ronald Reagan.

It was surprising after spending months reading this book to suddenly notice a change in his tone. The word choices are suddenly packed with negative connotations and dripping with disdain. I have to say, it was distracting and off-putting.

Thankfully, it only lasted one chapter. As soon as Bush takes office, the book regains its objective demeanor and we can once again study the evolution of the presidency.

It bothers me so much because political books, or books about presidents, are often so biased that I find it hard to trust what I'm reading. That's why I liked this one so much overall. For the most part, that's what you get.

And except for that one chapter, I was incredibly satisfied with this book. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone with a desire to learn about these political figures but who is overwhelmed by the sheer volume and depth of information out there. This presents it in a very organized, (mostly) neutral way.

[Nate Horning · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm very much so interested in the history of the American presidency and have read just about every book I've been able to get on the subject; however, most works on presidents come in the form of segmented reference books detailing basic facts, figures, and biographical information. The American President: From Teddy Roosevelt to Bill Clinton by William Leuchtenburg is the only narrative book I've come across that tells the story from the viewpoint of the office itself rather than the person inhabiting the role. You don't really get a sense of who the men were prior to taking office, but only who they were and who they became once they entered. This may sound like a bad thing, but it really isn't. Instead, it allows for a fairly long book to feel almost brisk and engaging. Unfortunately, a lot of history books tend to be dry and even dull--not so with this one.

Although Leuchtenburg only covers one hundred years of the American presidency here (which is, in my opinion, the most interesting period to dig into), he subtly mentions he might continue his work and write another volume for the prior hundred years. If he does, I would gladly buy and read that as well.

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This lengthy tome is thorough and filled with so many anctidotes about the presidents of the 20th century. Leuchtenburg gives the details we'd otherwise never know in such an interesting fashion. Even if you were alive during some of these presidencies, you most likely wouldn't be privy to this information. The author tells the accomplishments and failures of each term. He also looks into how the various political positions evolved over the years and what value they were given by the public and the other government figures. I enjoyed this even more than I thought I would. Leuchtenburg is well-read and it shows in his excellent choice of vocabulary and his style. This book was not boring. I recommend it to anyone who wants to understand what the presidency is really like. (I received this in a goodreads giveaway. Thanks!)

[Mary Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway. Wow, this man has done some intensive research! But somehow all of his knowledge still manages to flow smoothly in this immense second volume of his American President series. A highly readable and relatable history filled with anecdotes and surprising small window looks into the personalities and temperaments of the modern presidents. The size of the book is somewhat daunting, but when broken down president-by-president it is much more approachable. I shared this book with my brother-in-law, an armchair history buff, and he could not put it down! In this election year a reminder that all of our presidents were scarred and imperfect might just be in order. I am now interested in finding volume 1 and completing the detailed history of what has become widely known as world's most powerful job.

[Ronnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is by far the most captivating piece of literature on the politics of the Presidency of the US.. The anecdotes themselves are thought provoking.Leuchtenburg wrote this book as a Vol two of a two volume set. He wrote this on first...the first volume will be written soon. All the characters' behaviours are examined. The most startling are the recent past presidents .....JFK/Nixon/Ford/Carter/Reagan/Bushes/Clinton......while all that happened is well documented.....he manages to provide new info that makes it even more stunning...its a heckuva book...I am very happy that the Leominster Public Library was able to get this book..It is a very valuable and needed asset to their book collection. I can't thank them enough....Please find it and read it....Ronnie.

[Chris Leuchtenburg · Rating 5 out of 5]

One reviewer judged this book to be "fair and balanced." While I don't disagree at all, I would add scathing. Certainly neither the Reagan worshipers nor the Clinton hopefuls will be comfortable with this portrayal. Laced with sharply worded quotes that carry the story along, the pages fly by. Having now read the last 200 pages (Reagan, Bush and Clinton), my only disappointment is that the book isn't even longer.

For me, it was helpful to take on this thick book in chunks, first the presidents of my adult life starting with Reagan, then the presidents that I remember starting with Kennedy, and finally the first half of the century ending with a whimper (Eisenhower.)

[Melinda M · Rating 5 out of 5]

The American President covers from the assassination of William McKinley in 1901 to Bill Clinton's last night in office in January 2001 which covers the 20th century Presidents. It is like an encyclopedia of the 2oth century executive's of the United States, It is well written/ William E. Leuchtenburg has done a wonderful job of taking what is dry at times and making it interesting with keeping with the facts. For a scholar of this time period it is a wonderful addition of information in one place.

I received this book thru Goodreads Giveaways.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won a copy of this book through Goodreads giveaway.
This is a well-written, comprehensive historical tome of the 20th century American presidency. It contains extensive information on all of the presidents from Teddy Roosevelt to Bill Clinton. I cannot imagine the amount of research necessary to write a book of this caliber! Easily readable and engrossing, I would recommend Mr. Leuchtenburg's book to anyone interested in this time period.

[Andrea Engle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spectacular analysis of the 20th-century Presidents and their impact on the Presidency ... stunningly on-target in its assessments, supported by the telling anecdote and the clinching quote ... displays an impressive knowledge of that century's political history and the salient points in each President's career ...

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating book about the Presidents from Teddy Roosevelt to Bill Clinton. The reader who is interested in detailed history about the role of the various presidents and how they used their presidencies will enjoy reading this book. A casual reader would probably not enjoy it. I received my copy of this book from a Goodreads giveaway.

[David Provost · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoughtful and scholarly look at the impact each of the 20th Century's Presidents had, or didn't have, on American economic progress, international relations, and social programs by one of the true experts in the history of the American Presidency. A bit of a tome at 900 + pages, but well worth the investment in time.

[Shannon Croley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a must for Presidential History buffs. From unknown facts to most memorable moments during presidents'terms, The American Presidents covers them all! LOVED THIS BOOK. Iwon my copy from First Reads.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book really made me think about what makes a good president, morality, getting things accomplished, or both? I took almost a month to read this 800 page book b/c I really wanted to take my time, reflect on it, and discuss it with others. It was an incredibly thought provoking book.