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The Complete Book of US Presidents: Third Edition
Inform your vote with the history and personal stories of 45 US Presidents in this beautifully illustrated volume.
From the first president, George Washington, to the most recent president, Donald Trump, the United States has seen a host of extraordinary men take office. Their stories are all included in The Complete Book of US Presidents by journalist and historian Bill Yenne.
This book features short, biographical essays about the lives of 45 presidents , jam-packed with unusual details and expounding on the significant roles each commander-in-chief played in the shaping of the United States and its relations with the world. Lavishly illustrated, including each president's official White House portrait , sidebars about each and every vice president and First Lady, and interesting anecdotes , this book is accessible to a broad audience and will captivate any history lover during election season.
The Complete Book of US Presidents is an expansive collection that reflects on America's rich presidential history, telling the story of a nation through the biographies of some of its greatest political leaders.
From the first president, George Washington, to the most recent president, Donald Trump, the United States has seen a host of extraordinary men take office. Their stories are all included in The Complete Book of US Presidents by journalist and historian Bill Yenne.
This book features short, biographical essays about the lives of 45 presidents , jam-packed with unusual details and expounding on the significant roles each commander-in-chief played in the shaping of the United States and its relations with the world. Lavishly illustrated, including each president's official White House portrait , sidebars about each and every vice president and First Lady, and interesting anecdotes , this book is accessible to a broad audience and will captivate any history lover during election season.
The Complete Book of US Presidents is an expansive collection that reflects on America's rich presidential history, telling the story of a nation through the biographies of some of its greatest political leaders.
264 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2016
14 people are currently reading
558 people want to read
About the author
Bill Yenne
201 books52 followersBill Yenne is the author of several novels and over three dozen books on historical topics. He has also been a contributor to encyclopedias of both world wars.
The New Yorker wrote of Sitting Bull, his biography of the great Lakota leader, that it "excels as a study in leadership." This book was named to the number 14 spot among Amazon's 100 Best Books of the Year.
Library Journal observed that "enthusiastic World War II readers will be drawn to" his dual biography, Aces High: The Heroic Story of the Two Top Scoring American Aces of World War II.
Recently, his book Convair Deltas was named as Book of the Month by Air Classics, while his book Tommy Gun was named Pick of the Month by Shooting Illustrated.
His book Guinness: The 250 Year Quest for the Perfect Pint was listed among the top business books of the year by Cond Nast Portfolio Magazine, which rated Yenne's tome as its TOP pick for "Cocktail Conversation."
Yenne's Rising Sons: The Japanese American GIs Who Fought for the United States in World War II, was praised by Walter Boyne, former Director of the National Air & Space Museum, who called it "a fast moving... page turner," and the "best book yet written on the saga."
The Wall Street Journal wrote, when reviewing his Indian Wars: The Campaign for the American West, that Yenne writes with "cinematic vividness," and says of his work that it "has the rare quality of being both an excellent reference work and a pleasure to read."
The author lives in San Francisco, California, and on the web at www.BillYenne.com
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
February 25, 2023
Thanks to Netgalley. If you are a history buff and want to look at the presidents and research all the information, this is the book. The facts and the information you might have wondered about are all available for your viewing pleasure. Teachers, grab this one!
February 13, 2025
This is more of a coffee table book. Brief bios of the presidents from Washington to Biden. Completed with pictures and even briefer bios of the First Ladies and vice presidents. Good for very general reference,
Read
December 23, 2020I picked this up to use as a homeschool tool. I enjoy reading about presidents and visiting their national park destinations. This will be great to use as an opener for school and trip purposes!
June 16, 2016
“The Complete Book of US Presidents” is an oversize coffee table book that introduces readers to the 44 men who have served as our chief executives. Each section includes oval picture and the Official White House Portrait. Next to the oval is his name in cursive script, his years in office and political party. A few pages are devoted to a brief biography with sidebars for wives, vice-presidents and quotes from famous speeches, along with campaign posters, buttons and other photos, paintings and drawings. The length of each chapter varies with the importance of the subject.
I did find some factual inaccuracies. Some may have been typos, such as that Vice-President Marshall died in 1925, not 1920, Gen. Grant commanded the Army of The Tennessee (Union, named after the river) rather than the Army of Tennessee (Confederate, named after the state) and that Jane Wyman voted for Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1988. Others are just errors, such as Monroe was in Paris negotiating the Louisiana Purchase, not Madison, Kennedy was not the only president assassinated in the Twentieth Century (remember McKinley) and, rather than being adjacent, the LBJ Ranch and the LBJ Library are about 64 miles apart.
Those reservations aside, this is a delightful book. I enjoyed it page after page and picture after picture. Although I have read extensively about the presidents (obviously) I gained insights from this survey of our leaders. Author Bill Yenne has crafted a work that I will refer to in the future and assign it a seasonal turn on our coffee table.
I did receive a free copy of this book in the hopes, but without the obligation, to post a review.
I did find some factual inaccuracies. Some may have been typos, such as that Vice-President Marshall died in 1925, not 1920, Gen. Grant commanded the Army of The Tennessee (Union, named after the river) rather than the Army of Tennessee (Confederate, named after the state) and that Jane Wyman voted for Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1988. Others are just errors, such as Monroe was in Paris negotiating the Louisiana Purchase, not Madison, Kennedy was not the only president assassinated in the Twentieth Century (remember McKinley) and, rather than being adjacent, the LBJ Ranch and the LBJ Library are about 64 miles apart.
Those reservations aside, this is a delightful book. I enjoyed it page after page and picture after picture. Although I have read extensively about the presidents (obviously) I gained insights from this survey of our leaders. Author Bill Yenne has crafted a work that I will refer to in the future and assign it a seasonal turn on our coffee table.
I did receive a free copy of this book in the hopes, but without the obligation, to post a review.
January 22, 2023
This book offers an opportunity to learn about all of the U.S. Presidents, up to and including Joe Biden. It can be read in order for an overview of history or dipped into at random or to look up a particular President. I think that it is especially enjoyable to learn about the presidents who may be less well known to the reader.
Each entry includes a good amount of information. The illustrations (photos, paintings, etc.) are excellent. There are also lots of side bars with information on other topics including those close to the president, as for example their spouses and vice presidents.
Give this title to a U.S. history buff, even if that person is you. I am giving it to myself in the hard copy.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group for this title. All opinions are my own.
Each entry includes a good amount of information. The illustrations (photos, paintings, etc.) are excellent. There are also lots of side bars with information on other topics including those close to the president, as for example their spouses and vice presidents.
Give this title to a U.S. history buff, even if that person is you. I am giving it to myself in the hard copy.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group for this title. All opinions are my own.
June 14, 2021
I don't like Donald Trump as a person, but to completely leave out his accomplishments shows the authors ignorance on THIS SUBJECT IN GENERAL. I read from the latest Presidents first, at the bookstore, to see if the author would be well educated in our presidential history. I wanted an unbiased book of facts, this isn't the one to read.
June 1, 2025
Super basic, but that’s the point, I guess. Brief overviews of each president. I wanted to read this in an effort to better see how today’s politics may compare to prior presidencies, and how today fits into the wider historical context; to help myself take ‘the long view.’
It doesn’t go into enough detail or depth to really accomplish this. It’s more of a reference book or a basic primer for young people.
It doesn’t go into enough detail or depth to really accomplish this. It’s more of a reference book or a basic primer for young people.
September 4, 2025
*2025 Edition
Great look at all the presidents. As an outsider looking in, I was able to get a lot out of this book, and I couldn’t sense much bias. If you want a book that goes deeply in depth on every single thing each President did, however, then this book may not be for you.
Great look at all the presidents. As an outsider looking in, I was able to get a lot out of this book, and I couldn’t sense much bias. If you want a book that goes deeply in depth on every single thing each President did, however, then this book may not be for you.
Read
February 5, 2023Incomplete
May 13, 2023
An interesting book about every us president with a plethora of information. my only issue with the book is spacing issues.
March 2, 2024
Cool to read about what each President major accomplishments were.
June 9, 2025
Great review and reference
May 10, 2021
The Presidents of the United States represent (arguably with one or two exceptions) some of the greatest minds in history. This book represents a brief but enjoyable chronicle of this unbroken lineage from George Washington to Joe Biden. Though each biography is necessarily brief in order to fit all of them into the book's 260-some pages, the reader is able to gain some small sense of the characters, trials, and accomplishments of each President.
The book itself is beautifully produced, and filled with large photographs, side-boxes containing quotations from notable Presidential speeches, and additional boxes providing brief biographical notes regarding both the Vice Presidents and the First Ladies.
Though each President is given a separate entry and the focus of each essay is more biographical than political, the attentive reader can, with just a bit of mental effort, trace some of the enduring strains of political debate not only during each Presidential administration but enduring and extending from one President to the next. Admittedly, this is not the book you'd read if you wanted to truly grasp the history of the United States, or even of the American Presidency. Rather, it's the book you would read if you wanted a single short (indeed, short enough to be read in a single sitting) overview of the Presidency throughout the years.
While that's not a flaw in principle, it is a challenging task for an author to accomplish. To present an even-handed treatment of some of the highest profile and most controversial minds in the last few centuries of history is challenging enough. To do so without the space to provide detailed and nuanced treatments of the various political issues is nearly impossible. This book is a partial success in that department. Indeed, the various political differences and even political scandals are presented in a fair and academic tone, with the author seldom taking sides or editorializing (though certain single-line comments occasionally betray the author's own political leanings without overall damaging the book's quality).
However, it's not just what one presents but also one what omits that determines the way readers interpret one's work, and the author occasionally presents what seems an unfairly biased perspective on a few of the Presidents discussed. This flaw does not extend to the majority of the book's essays, but these flaws, coupled with persistent editorial errors throughout, damage what is otherwise an excellent read.
(Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book for purposes of review. My opinions are my own.)
The book itself is beautifully produced, and filled with large photographs, side-boxes containing quotations from notable Presidential speeches, and additional boxes providing brief biographical notes regarding both the Vice Presidents and the First Ladies.
Though each President is given a separate entry and the focus of each essay is more biographical than political, the attentive reader can, with just a bit of mental effort, trace some of the enduring strains of political debate not only during each Presidential administration but enduring and extending from one President to the next. Admittedly, this is not the book you'd read if you wanted to truly grasp the history of the United States, or even of the American Presidency. Rather, it's the book you would read if you wanted a single short (indeed, short enough to be read in a single sitting) overview of the Presidency throughout the years.
While that's not a flaw in principle, it is a challenging task for an author to accomplish. To present an even-handed treatment of some of the highest profile and most controversial minds in the last few centuries of history is challenging enough. To do so without the space to provide detailed and nuanced treatments of the various political issues is nearly impossible. This book is a partial success in that department. Indeed, the various political differences and even political scandals are presented in a fair and academic tone, with the author seldom taking sides or editorializing (though certain single-line comments occasionally betray the author's own political leanings without overall damaging the book's quality).
However, it's not just what one presents but also one what omits that determines the way readers interpret one's work, and the author occasionally presents what seems an unfairly biased perspective on a few of the Presidents discussed. This flaw does not extend to the majority of the book's essays, but these flaws, coupled with persistent editorial errors throughout, damage what is otherwise an excellent read.
(Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book for purposes of review. My opinions are my own.)
September 10, 2021
This hard-cover, full-color book of US presidents contains all 46 presidents, through Biden. It was released prior to Biden taking office, so the information on him does not include any of his acts in office. Each president's section includes information about the VP, first lady, and any previous wives. There is an overview of each administration. Much is omitted; it is by no means comprehensive. It is a good reference for a grade-schooler.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews