Gerald R. Ford

The American Presidents #38

by Douglas Brinkley, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. (Editor)

The "accidental" president whose innate decency and steady hand restored the presidency after its greatest crisis

When Gerald R. Ford entered the White House in August 1974, he inherited a presidency tarnished by the Watergate scandal, the economy was in a recession, the Vietnam War was drawing to a close, and he had taken office without having been elected. Most observers gave him little chance of success, especially after he pardoned Richard Nixon just a month into his presidency, an action that outraged many Americans, but which Ford thought was necessary to move the nation forward.
Many people today think of Ford as a man who stumbled a lot--clumsy on his feet and in politics--but acclaimed historian Douglas Brinkley shows him to be a man of independent thought and conscience, who never allowed party loyalty to prevail over his sense of right and wrong. As a young congressman, he stood up to the isolationists in the Republican leadership, promoting a vigorous role for America in the world. Later, as House minority leader and as president, he challenged the right wing of his party, refusing to bend to their vision of confrontation with the Communist world. And after the fall of Saigon, Ford also overruled his advisers by allowing Vietnamese refugees to enter the United States, arguing that to do so was the humane thing to do.
Brinkley draws on exclusive interviews with Ford and on previously unpublished documents (including a remarkable correspondence between Ford and Nixon stretching over four decades), fashioning a masterful reassessment of Gerald R. Ford's presidency and his underappreciated legacy to the nation.

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

224 pages, Hardcover

First published February 6, 2007

About the author

Douglas Brinkley is a professor of history at Rice University and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. The Chicago Tribune has dubbed him “America’s new past master.” His most recent books are The Quiet World, The Wilderness Warrior, and The Great Deluge. Six of his books have been selected as New York Times Notable Books of the Year. He lives in Texas with his wife and three children.

Reviews

[robin friedman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Ford, Not A Lincoln


When he was sworn in as vice president on December 6, 1973, Gerald Ford said in his acceptance speech to the nation: "I am a Ford, not a Lincoln. But I am definitely not a Model T." This homespun, self-effacing comment became the hallmark of Ford's presidency. Eight months after becoming vice president, on August 9. 1974, Ford became the 38th president of the United States when Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace as a result of Watergate. Ford became to first and the only person to serve as vice president and as president without being elected in his own right.

One month after becoming president, on September 8, 1974, Ford pardoned Nixon for any crimes he may have committed as president. The pardon provoked an outcry at the time, and many believed that a form of "corrupt bargain" had been involved. The pardon probably cost Ford the election in 1976. Many years after the fact, a consensus developed that by putting Watergate and its corruption behind the nation at a critical moment, Ford had acted correctly and courageously and done the United States a service. For example, in 2001, Ford received the Profile in Courage award from the John F, Kennedy Foundation. Senator Ted Kennedy, who presented Ford the award, had been one of the most vociferous of the critics of the pardon.

Historian David Brinkley tells the story of Ford in his 2007 short biography which is part of the American Presidents series edited by Arthur Schliesinger Jr. and Sean Wilentz. I find these little books give an invaluable overview of our presidents and of American history and encourage reflection upon the nature of leadership. I tend to favor the histories of the earlier presidents because a sense of distance helps maintain objectivity. But I was moved deeply by Brinkley's account of Ford for many reasons, not the least of which was that I lived through his presidency as an adult in Washington, D.C.

When the then-new vice president described himself as "a Ford", there was a hidden irony as Gerald Ford (1913 -- 2006) was born Leslie Lynch King, Jr. and became known as Gerald Ford in 1917 following his mother's divorce and subsequent marriage to a man of that name. Ford's family struggled during the Depression. Ford played football at the University of Michigan, graduated from Yale Law School and was first elected to the House of Representatives from Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1948. He rose in the ranks through his hard work, ideological moderation, spirit of camaraderie, and ambition. Ford yearned to become the Speaker of the House, a goal that eluded him.

When Spiro Agnew resigned the vice presidency in disgrace, Nixon selected the well-respected Ford to replace him, and Congress quickly confirmed the choice. As Brinkley's book shows, Nixon and Ford had been great friends since 1949. Ford assumed the presidency over a nation in near disarray with Watergate, double-digit inflation and Vietnam. It was a dauntingly difficult situation, probably matched only by the presidencies of Washington, Lincoln, and F.D.R. At first, the pardon of Nixon did not appear to help matters.

Brinkley's history emphasizes Ford's integrity, common sense, unassuming character, and generally good judgment. He defends the wisdom of Ford's decision to pardon Nixon, a view which has found widespread agreement. He also points to Ford's accomplishments in ending the Vietnam War at last, reducing inflation, and negotiating the Helsinki Accords in 1975 which would eventually be important in the fall of communism. Ford named John Paul Stevens to the Supreme Court. He survived two assassination attempts. Ford was an ideological moderate who steered a course between the far right of his own party and the liberal left wing of the Democratic party that, together with Watergate, had threatened to polarize the nation. Most importantly, in his unpretentious way, Ford restored the faith of many Americans in their government and institutions and in the basics of American democracy. During his long life as elder statesman following his presidency, Ford received substantial if belated credit for his accomplishments.

Lacking in charisma, Gerald Ford was an unlikely leader for a perilous time. He acquitted himself and served the country well. Brinkley's book is an outstanding addition to the American president's series and a fine short study of our 38th president.

Robin Friedman

[Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many years ago I embarked on a goal to read a quality biography of every president, in order. The bio had to be of the president’s life and not be a friendly puff piece by that person’s campaign staff or close and compromised insider. It should have been written some years after that term of office to allow for some degree of historical perspective. In Choosing Douglas Brinkley’ Gerald R. Ford my mistake was to ignore the page count. At 160 pages of text Professor Brinkley has produced an easy to read and compact breeze through of a biography. Just not a deep or comprehensive study.

Having lived through the Ford years I suspected him to be a nice enough guy and overall, unfairly treated in the rougher side of politics. Politics on its way to become the needlessly hate driven pig wallow it has since become. That said he achieved a lot before allowing his loyalties to take him into jobs we are assured he did not want. In particular he did not want to be Vice President and he did not want to be the un-elected president after it became his job to step into the position that President Nixon’s resignation became Ford’s to fill.

That seems to be the official narrative. Absent much in the way of investigation or analysis Brinkley would have us accept it.

For all of my disappointment in the lack of depth or serious engagement with any of the issues of Ford’s long career, Brinkley has yielded up a readable book. Gerald R. Ford is not the biography for which I was looking. Professor Brinkley was writing to an assignment that was not going to produce the book I wanted. It is part of a series of short presidential biographies called the American Presidents. If this is a reasonable example, they provide reader with a fast way to scan through presumably friendly biographies of American Presidents. These are not for me, but there has to be a fair-sized audience who want little more than the headlines and assurances that the nation has, mostly been in good hands.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://bestpresidentialbios.com/2018...

Published in 2007, “Gerald R. Ford” is Douglas Brinkley’s contribution to The American Presidents Series. Brinkley is a professor of history at Rice University and the author of about two-dozen books including biographies of Rosa Parks, Henry Ford, Walter Cronkite and Jimmy Carter (which I will be reading shortly).

Given the format of books in this series, Brinkley’s 160-page biography of Ford is unsurprisingly crisp and often fast-paced. Only rarely does the narrative dwell on individual moments in Ford’s life for very long. And where the efficiency expected of books in this series can prove inadequate for particularly complex or multi-faceted presidents, it would seem well-suited to Gerald Ford’s life.

The author’s review of Ford’s childhood is undeniably competent but far too brief. Just a dozen pages sweep Ford from birth to his election to Congress. But because his twenty-five year career in the House of Representatives was relatively dull (certainly by LBJ’s standard), Brinkley’s description of this period is commendably concise.

But if brevity can be a virtue, Brinkley’s choice of what to filter from the text is occasionally perplexing. Nowhere does the author discuss the historically thorough background investigation Ford endured as part of his confirmation as vice president. Yet the reader learns how the sailors on the Mayaguez (a U.S. ship seized during the final days of the Vietnam War) taught their captors to use the ship’s shower facilities.

Given the limits imposed by the book’s format, the author is regrettably unable to tease out the often-fascinating interpersonal dynamics between President Ford and his top staff, including Donald Rumsfeld and Henry Kissinger. And Brinkley is able to provide only the sparest of insight into Ford’s inner-self, family life, retirement years or political legacy.

But his analysis of Ford’s precarious political position within the Republican Party during the 1976 presidential campaign is excellent and he offers an interesting account of Ronald Reagan’s attempt to gain the Republican nomination at President Ford’s expense. And Brinkley sprinkles enough artful one-liners in the text to convince the reader that the full weight of his insight and expertise is not entirely revealed in these pages.

Overall, Douglas Brinkley’s “Gerald R. Ford” is an articulate, efficient and unquestionably competent review of the life of the 38th president. But while the author does a respectable job with a difficult format it seems that Gerald Ford, for all his bland decency, is surprisingly hard to capture in just 160 pages.

Overall rating: 3½ stars

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Douglas Brinkley does a great job fitting Gerald Ford’s life into the small package required for the American Presidents series, and the size is appropriate for Ford’s brief, mostly forgettable presidency. Published one year after the death of US President #38, this book is a cradle-to-grave biography, but heavily-weighted toward Ford’s time in the White House, mostly fast-forwarding through his quarter-century in Congress.

Ford’s family is hardly covered, except for mentions of his wife’s troubles and the origins of both of his legal names. His personality only really comes out towards the end, when he graciously accepts being mocked by Chevy Chase, and develops a lasting friendship with a political rival. Until then, the only friends he seems to have are Richard Nixon, Donald Rumsfeld, and Dick Cheney, hardly a group that brings to mind camaraderie.

There were minimal editing errors in this first edition, but I struggled with Brinkley telling me three or four times that ford was an “accidental president” – sometimes with quotation marks and sometimes without – because the choice of Ford as vice president came off as rather deliberate and with a likely ascension in mind, even if no one was saying it. Also distracting was the author’s repeated use of the word “pol,” a term for a crafty politician that I had heard exactly zero times in reading biographies of the previous 37 presidents and following politics for thirty years.

Overall, this was a great introduction to Gerald Ford, a man who deserves more recognition in history, as well as a thicker biography. I will be seeking one out on my second run through presidential history, starting next year.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gerald R. Ford became President not because he was popular with the American public, not because he campaigned for the job, but because of his character.

James Cannon, Character Above All

When Gerald Ford was chosen to be Richard Nixon’s vice president, it was widely understood he would soon become president himself. Nixon was hurdling inexorably toward impeachment and conviction because of the Watergate crisis and chose to resign instead. His vice president, Spiro Agnew, had already resigned because of a tawdry corruption charge stemming back to his time as governor of Maryland. The 25th amendment to the Constitution, enacted just seven years earlier, clarified the rules of succession to the presidency and Ford was the first, and so far, only person to whom it has applied. Ford, a long serving, respected Republican leader in the House of Representatives became the only American president who was never elected, either on the top of the ticket or as vice president. Despite this, the choice of Ford brought a period of relative order to the nation at a time of unprecedented instability and discontent—which, in retrospect, seems almost quaint today. For the few who might be interested in reading about Ford today, this is a good place to start, but don’t expect it to be the final word. This is a Joe Friday-esque, just the facts, narrative.

Douglas Brinkley’s biography provides an unspectacular account, at times pedestrian and short on historical insight, but it has some value nonetheless. Brinkley is a member of the club of popular American historians who are regularly featured in endless chat shows that masquerade as news and analysis, the kind of which have poisoned and trivialized domestic political discourse in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. They are prolific, write for popularity rather than posterity, and more interested in the simplicity of a popular catch phrase or what passes for “gravitas” at the expense of the gritty complexity of real historical scrutiny.

Ford was hampered by a volatile energy prices, a stagnant economy, a superpower struggle with the Soviet Union, and general societal discontent, all issues he left to and also hampered his successor, Jimmy Carter. His two most important legacies remain debatable through today: his pardoning of Nixon and the Helsinki Peace Accords with the Soviet Union and Brinkley does little to add to historical interpretation.

With respect to the pardon, Brinkley accepts the conventional wisdom that, with the wisdom and surety of hindsight, however controversial it may have been at the time, it saved the nation from further political strife and discord. He equates it with another pardon policy, that of draft resistors and exiles during the Vietnam War. While the latter certainly did begin a process of healing, it remains debatable if the former did. The Nixon pardon set a precedent that President Obama followed by not investigating and/or prosecuting the crimes of the George W. Bush administration—the failure of intelligence of September 11th, the reasoning that led to a war with Iraq and the chaos it unleashed, and the unaccountability of the causes of the financial crash of 2008. Those most responsible for those later were rehabilitated to become administration figures, Supreme Court justices, and powerful political operatives for the debacle in DC from 2017-2021. And now President Biden is facing the same decisions (or perhaps more appropriately, non-decisions) in his presidency as the Justice Department considers criminal charges agains the previous occupant of the White House. In the case of Ford, the “wisdom” of the Nixon pardon, Brinkley’s verdict is too clean, too simple (simplistic?). He too readily accepts it as healing and does not connect it to the rise of Reagan’s conservative revolution which is, in my view, an argument that deserves to considered.

Brinkley is, in my opinion, far too simplistic in his verdict on the Helsinki Accords, claiming “their calls for openness and respect for human rights…would mark the end of Soviet domination of Eastern Europe [to become] one of the finer legacies of [the Ford] presidency.” It certainly was an important symbolic achievement, but at odds with practical conditions behind the Iron Curtain as well as previous and subsequent history. He never once mentions practical events in the history of Ostpolitik . Indeed, there is greater evidence that Jimmy Carter advanced the intent of this provision with substantive policies grounded in human rights, including the boycotting of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. Lastly, there is a greater body of evidence that the demise of Soviet dominance had more to do with its inner rot, as Gorbachev’s tenure proved. Indeed, Brinkley’s inflated verdict found it’s confirmation in Ford’s biggest blunder as president, claiming that Poland was not under the dominance of the Soviet Union in a debate with Carter. While the episode was detailed, it was never linked to the false verdict posed in this biography.

(As an aside, the symbolic death of the spirit of the Accords was appropriately in the same city, when the 45th occupant of the White House virtually surrendered American sovereignty to Russia at a press conference with Vladimir Putin.)

I think this would have been a more substantive book had the author focused on the “whys” that led to Ford being such an obvious choice to be chosen as vice president. There is a short biographical sketch that includes Ford’s service in WWII, his election as a congressman from Grand Rapids, Michigan, and his rise to power in the House, where his only ambition was a futile desire to one day become Speaker. But the biography is rather pedestrian and only connects his ascension to the vice presidency as a natural destination of a seasoned politician, not because of a deep character traits that were consistent throughout his life. Ford was no intellectual, but he was genuine. It would have been nice to get more of a sense of that.

[Shawn Thrasher · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the third president sketch I've read in The American Presidents series; I decided I would read Nixon and then Ford so see how they flowed one into the other. If the essence of Elizabeth Drew's Richard Nixon was (mostly) evil incarnate, the essence of Douglas Brinkley's Gerald R. Ford was genial but consummate politician, always the quarterback, who never did a bad thing. He might have willfully ignored some bad things, he might have pretended some bad things didn't exist, but he never perpetrated anything illegal or unethical. Drew's Nixon was looking at Nixon through her eyes, and while Brinkley's Ford often has a similar feel, we get to see the 70s through Ford's eyes as well. That's not to say this is a hagiography; but it seems a bit more even handed and unbiased (although let's be honest - it's difficult to remain unbiased about Richard Nixon). I was surprised at how much I didn't know about the Ford presidency - I was a child of the 70s, but that's how I saw the 70s, through a child's eyes, and those eyes didn't include politics. I barely remember Ford as president. I thought Brinkley made some interesting points about the ghosts that haunted both ends of the Ford presidency. Richard Nixon was always in one corner rattling chains, and by the end of the Ford presidence, Ronald Reagan was in the other corner, not exactly waiting patiently until 1980. Brinkley does make a good case that Gerald Ford saved the Republican Party after the long national nightmare of Watergate, and during his terms in the house created a solid Republican voting bloc; that bloc, although different ideologically, still exists today. Republicans continue to vote their party, and perched on a cloud above, Gerald Ford watches and is happy.

[Judy Baker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un-elected, Leslie Lynch King assumes the Presidency of the United States. Sounds like a great opening to a futuristic conspiracy novel. He is, in fact, Gerald R Ford, who stepped into Spiro Agnew's Vice-Presidential shoes less than a year before Richard Nixon resigned, making him the first man to reach the White House without being on an election ballot. And since his presidency only lasted 895 days, I chose to read Douglas Brinkley's Gerald R Ford, a part of the American Presidents Series, which gives a easy-read, bird's-eye view of each president. The book was very readable. Brinkley peppered his biography with sports terms, building on the fact that Ford had been a football player in Michigan, was arguably one of the most athletic Presidents, and nearly went pro. (Ironic, when you think that the Fourth Estate focused in on his stumbling episode). I found the repeated references to playbook, goal line, and carrying the ball a bit contrived. However, all in all, it seemed a balanced presentation.
Unlike many of his predecessors, Ford had never aimed for the White House. He had set his sights on the House Majority Leader, unfortunately at a time when the Democrats had firm control of that seat, and the Republicans were all over the board. He actually spent his early years trying to unite the Republican party, becoming Minority Leader, and that is how he made the short list of contenders for the Vice-Presidency, left by the disgraced (and disbarred) Agnew. Little really is expected of the Vice-President other than to support the President and be prepared to take his placed should it be vacated, both roles which he fulfilled. As the evidence of Watergate slowly unfolded, Ford stumped all over the country, supporting Nixon and denying any involvement by him. Of course, eventually the truth came out, Nixon resigns, and Ford becomes president. Not a great time for his transition: the economy is a mess, Vietnam is still a thorn, and now the Presidency itself is disgraced. One of his first acts as President was to pardon Nixon, angering everybody who wanted blood. Having defended Nixon and now pardoning him, smelled like a pre-arranged deal, though from Ford's perspective, a pardon implies guilt, and his goal was to protect the Presidency and the country from being focused on all of the nastiness of Watergate. While he was not particularly effective in leading the country (difficult to do when Congress has enough votes to overturn any veto....which they did... often), it is said that Gerald R Ford, was a decent man, a cleansing breeze that removed the stench of Watergate and the political practices that created it. And he went on record as the first President to lose a war, but at least we were finally out of Vietnam. Ford was politically and socially a centrist, certainly more left that much of the Republican Party. He was unable to convince the American populace that he was their man in 1976, especially with Ronald Reagan nipping at his heels. I don't remember much about the campaign of 1976 against Jimmy Carter, but I doubt if there could have been two more decent men opposing each other. Decency in governing leaders...now that's a thought.

[Chris Loveless · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting biography about former president Gerald ford. As a society, we feel the need to dissect people’s lives and rank and rate them comparing them to others and basing our opinions on how eloquently other people write and speak about them. Ford only served as president for 2 years, so not a lot of content to critique him for. His 2 years, the economy was in shambles. High inflation, unemployment, decreasing growth. Foreign policy was delicately handled, a few personal gawfs and times of indecisiveness. Pardoning Nixon was seen as a bad decision and a level of shadiness. But it allowed the country to attempt to move forward. Unfortunately the challenges above and the US trying to get involved in foreign affairs where we had no chance to benefit or win stunted his presidency. Ford was an accomplished football star, college and law graduate and a successful politician before becoming president. After his presidency he resided in California, wrote a few books, was on a number of corporate boards , wrote contributions in newspapers.

[Henry Atkinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Douglas Brinkley is one of America’s best presidential historians and he wrote the TAP bio for Gerald R. Ford. The interviews Brinkley conducted with the former President for this book are illuminating and interesting. But Brinkley’s analysis is sometimes frustrating. He clearly has an axe to grind with Ford’s more conservative opponents in the Republican Party and even Ronald Reagan, somewhat surprising given that Brinkley edited The Reagan Diaries. Brinkley is also harsh on Ford’s time as Richard Nixon’s second VP, an impossible job if ever there was one. Still, Brinkley provides an interesting look at an underrated President who governed at a difficult time. Rating: 3.25/5

[Brit · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. Solid little quick biography. There really is no other biography on this President.

[Doreen Petersen · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a person Ford may have been a wonderful man but as a president it was like he was just treading water.

[Fred Kohn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Continuing on in my trek through the American Presidents Series, I read this book on Ford. Just previous to this, I read the books on Kennedy and LBJ. I skipped the book on Nixon because I had already read it, albeit seven years ago. I didn’t originally intend to read the entire series, but the first one I read (on Rutherford B. Hayes) was so good that I decided to read the whole series. This one on Ford was one of the best.

One thing I often do when reading, or after reading, a book on a U.S. president is to go to the Wikipedia page on the rankings of the U.S. presidents to see how historians have ranked the president in question. I was sad but not surprised to see Ford ranked in the bottom half. My impression was that Brinkley in general had a higher opinion of Ford than that. I myself was impressed with the man, but this may have had more to do with his moral character than with his ability as a leader. Coming on the heels of the philanderers Kennedy and Johnson, Ford was like a breath of fresh air in this regard. As Brinkley says, Ford was practically egoless.

Ford is one of those presidents whose presidency I lived through, so I was particularly interested in it. Of the occurrences during that presidency, I didn’t remember the Mayaguez incident at all. Wikipedia has a lengthy article on that incident. Most of it I skimmed, but I read with more attention the public reaction and aftermath of the incident. It seems that general consensus is that the affair was bungled, and I wonder if this may be part of the reason for Ford's generally lower ranking among historians.

Among the occurrences during Ford's administration that I recognized were SALT II, the Helsinki Accords, Suharto, the two assassination attempts, and of course the Nixon pardon. In the case of Suharto, I only remembered the name; I did not associate him with East Timor and the brutal murders there. I had forgotten about the two assassination attempts, but when Brinkley mentioned them I was, like, "Oh yeah, I remember that!"

The pardon was of course the most controversial of Ford's actions, but I don’t remember it as well as I do Watergate. I especially remember the publication of the Watergate tapes in the newspapers and people being shocked by all the "expletive deleted" in them. Times sure have changed!

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having read most of the published offerings of "The American Presidents" series of survey biographies, I feel that I can now determine more accurately the "best" and "worst" of them all. This biography of Gerald Ford by Douglas Brinkley is among the best, if not the best, I have read of these survey histories. Brinkley doesn't have to spend a lot of time "humanizing" his subject as many authors (I feel) of other presidents have had to, simply because at bottom, Gerald Ford was one of the MOST human and humane men to ever sit in The Chair.
Ford was for the longest time seen as another of the "accidental presidents" (John Tyler having been the first one after the death of William Henry Harrison), but his life and legacy as president and indeed his life post-presidency illustrate how important Ford was for the nation at a critical time in its history: torn asunder by Vietnam, double-digit inflation, the nascent beginning of the culture wars, the rise of the religious right, the coming energy crisis, the shadow of the Watergate debacle and the subsequent pardon by Nixon stand as the largest of the issues facing Ford. There were many others, yet Ford gets no credit for laying the groundwork for the all of the Soviet Union and the importance of the Helsinki Accords for human rights. The biggest shadow cast over Ford's presidency, and in my opinion the reason his life, legacy, and presidency languished for so long in obscurity, was of course his pardon of Richard Nixon. No other initiative, no matter how important, could get much traction because of the perceived "corrupt bargain" that allowed Ford the presidency and a release from prosecution of Nixon. History has indeed proven Ford right, but it seems to have taken longer for people, not just authors or historians, to realize this.
I am glad Brinkley, a great storyteller as well as biographer, was chosen as the author for the 38th president. I am not sure any other historian could have given us this gem.

[Ben Truong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gerald R. Ford is the thirtieth-seventh book in The American Presidents series – a biographical series chronicling the Presidents of the United States. Douglas Brinkley wrote this particular installment and edited by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.

Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. was an American politician who served as the thirty-eighth President of the United States from August 1974 to January 1977. Before his accession to the presidency, Ford served as the fortieth Vice President of the United States from December 1973 to August 1974. Ford is the only person to have served as both vice president and president without being elected to either office by the Electoral College.

Brinkley's review of Ford's childhood is undeniably competent but far too brief. Just a dozen pages sweep Ford from birth to his election to Congress. However, his twenty-five year career in the House of Representatives was relatively dull and uneventful – comparatively speaking, Brinkley's description of this period is commendably concise.

Most of the biography is focused on Ford's precarious political position within the Republican Party during the 1976 presidential campaign and his account of Ronald Reagan's attempt to gain the Republican nomination at President Ford's expense. Brinkley sprinkles enough artful one-liners in the text to convince the reader that the full weight of his insight and expertise is not revealed in these pages.

All in all, Gerald R. Ford is a good, albeit concise biography of the thirtieth-eighth President and it is a good continuation to what would hopefully be a wonderful series of presidential biographies, which I plan to read in the very near future.

[David Corleto-Bales]

Gerald Ford remains the only person to have served at president of the United States without ever being elected to the office or vice president, and his life and presidency are covered here. Ford's mother fled an abusive marriage in Omaha to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where the future president grew up, top in his class, Eagle Scout, and then superb football player at Michigan. Then came law school and the Navy in World War II. He was elected to the House in 1948.

His term in office, after Richard Nixon's resignation, was difficult and fraught with economic, international and internal turmoil, (America was wandering culturally after the traumas of the Kennedy assassination, Vietnam and Watergate) but Brinkley suggest that Ford did his best, and contrary to the contemporary belief in the 1970s that Ford was "dull plodder" and second rater, he points out Ford's high intelligence, his unique understanding of how the Congress is supposed to work, and (glaring in comparison with the preceding president) his basic decency and integrity. It's interesting to compare Ford's presidency with that of more recent presidents, particularly the post-Vietnam brakes that Congress put on military action; Ford could have not have prevented the fall of South Vietnam. Congress put a stop to further spending, but Ford knew, (as Joe Biden knew last year) that it was always going to end the way it did. Ford might be unheralded as president for the most part, but is remembered fondly for his long career, graciousness and likability. We could do a lot worse, and often have.

[Christopher Litsinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly good for a "The American Presidents" book, Brinkley covers Ford's political career in reasonable detail; although perhaps with a few too many football metaphors.
Brinkley makes the case that history will remember Ford's pardon of Nixon as a brave and correct thing to do, and provides evidence (such as Ford receiving the Kennedy Profiles in Courage award) to bear it out. I don't disagree that "history" will remember Ford this way, but I think most Americans will barely remember this president who was not elected and did not even serve a full term. If asked "what president ended the Vietnam war?" I doubt that many would answer Ford. If asked to list presidents who had survived assassination attempts, I doubt that many would answer Ford.
While on that subject, it's in describing these attempts that Brinkley shared this annectdote, which is probably my favorite part of the book:

As the police carted off Ford’s second female would-be assassin that month, the president lay on the floor of his limo, uninjured despite being crushed under the considerable weight of two beefy Secret Service agents plus Donald Rumsfeld, all three of whom remained atop him as the motorcade sped away. “Can we turn on the air conditioning? It’s getting stuffy in here,” Ford cracked.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exemplary installment in this on-going series that I am reading. I thoroughly enjoyed this particular study since I lived through Ford's presidency as a child. I remember bits and pieces of these events but obviously not all of them. I found this brief volume helpful in reminding me of things I had forgotten and including quite a bit that I was too young to know or realize at the time. Just the fact that names like Rumsfield, Cheney, and Bush are vital to this time period, names of major import later, skipped past me in my elementary school years.
Like many Americans, when I think of Ford's presidency, the pardon of Nixon is the paramount event. Brinkley does a yeoman's job of showing why this is a shallow understanding of Ford's 896 days in the White House.
Many of the reviewers fault Brinkley for moving through his analysis and narrative at a fast, and perhaps superficial, pace. This comes from a misunderstanding of the beauty of this series. It is designed to give a brief overview of the particular chief executive's life, with a focus on their administration. It is not meant to serve as a deep examination, but to whet the appetite of the reader for further explorations in the particular areas.
I found that Brinkley's contribution to "The American Presidents" fulfills this task and I recommend it for your reading.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Corona book review diary 17 -

A very good overview of the life of the 38th president, Gerald R Ford Jr. Highlights for me include documenting his long friendship with Nixon and the many disparaging quotes from a range of people. He really does come off as a charming guy, looking for a middle of the road compromise on most issues. A friendly, honest, not terribly....intellectual dude.

After reading this and going to the Ford museum in Grand Rapids (the book calls it a shrine, which isn’t far off) it does look like that pardoning Nixon was political suicide but also the right thing to do. It did let the nation heal. And maybe letting an honest straight up guy briefly succeed Nixon worked out well too.

4 stars. Can’t imagine a better biography of him, he’s so middle of the road I can’t fathom reading his two (?!?) memoirs.

[Jocelyn Nielson · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading through Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, it was so refreshing to read about Ford. Truth, full truth. In fact, there was actually a line in the biography (In truth he was successful because he was so unspectacular.) that matched why I enjoyed the book so much. Now, saying that I enjoyed it so much, I did but it wasn't spectacular. Ironically. It was a bit slow getting into the book (and dry to boot), with not much to recommend Ford's early years. But once he started getting into politics, it was smooth sailing, and thank goodness for that. For how short the book was, it was a decent biography and would work adequately well for anyone who wants to learn more about the 38th President.

[Christie Bane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a totally adequate though lacking-in-depth biography of Gerald Ford. I knew nothing at all about him before reading the book other than what I learned in the Nixon biography I read before this one. Basically, he became president because he was nice and unobjectionable. Even though he was sometimes mocked for being not-that-smart, history has decided to look upon him and his actions — including his pardon of Nixon — kindly. I think that is justified. The current administration seems hellbent on destroying America’s trust in government, much more so than Nixon’s administration ever did, and I completely 100% understand the appeal of a bland, benevolent leader to calm the storm. So yay Gerald Ford, U.S. history’s only totally unelected president.

[Peggy Page · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gerald Ford must have been a far more interesting man than Douglas Brinkley reveals to us in this turgid bio. Admittedly a condensed version of his life and career, as required in this American Presidents Series, it suffers from a total lack of analysis and insight. And Brinkley’s writing style - dreadful. I have tried to read others of his books but can never get past a single chapter. His books read like high school term papers, studded with cliches and missed metaphors. Many of his sentences are completely incomprehensible: “The search for Fortas’s successor jump-started the House minority leader to keep going?” Huh? I was very grateful the book is only 160 pages long.

[Don Siegrist · Rating 4 out of 5]

President Ford is largely forgotten now, but he was instrumental in guiding the country out of the psychic depression stemming from Watergate and the Vietnam War. His decisions to pardon Nixon and allow Saigon to fall were unpopular at the time but are now viewed as visionary. He comes across as an honest, decent man and the consummate moderate. Sadly, he would not recognize his beloved Republican party today. This is one of a series on the American presidents. Not a deep dive, definitive, biography but a satisfying overview.

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

The American Presidents look at the only man not elected to the Presidency or Vice Presidency. Follows the career of Gerald Ford as a Congressman, his serving on the Warren Commission. How he was chosen by Richard Nixon to replace Spiro Agnew as Vice President. Then his short term as President after Nixon’s resignation, his pardon and the fall out. A brief synopsis of his loss to Jimmy Carter and post presidency. A good read.

[Joe Desmond · Rating 5 out of 5]

This biography is one of the best books in the American Presidents series. A well balanced book, it describes Ford’s long term friendship with Nixon as well as his strong defense of Nixon until his resignation in August 1974. His pardon of Nixon also receives extensive treatment, both from the initial criticism to the longer term acceptance and support of his decision. His stance on the Clinton Impeachment was also enlightening. His perspective on the Trump era would be welcome.

[Jay Atwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read several of the books in this series (Buchanan, Lincoln, Garfield, Arthur, McKinley, Truman, etc.) and they all strike me as fair-minded overviews of the given US President. Make no mistake, these are not collegiate level texts but were I a high school history teacher I'd definitely make use of these as independent study aids.

[Brian E. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. Brinkley wrote a great book about President Gerald Ford. I was 9 years old when President Ford was sworn into office. He came in at a time when the country needed a steady hand and a level head. He was the guy for that job. I strongly encourage readers to read this short book that is packed with information about our 38th President.

[Timothy T. Pratt · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent read

I learned a lot about Gerald Ford that I didn't know and now understand the challenges he faced with Watergate and why ultimately he made the right decision with Nixon.

[The Rev. Dr. Helen L. Rainier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Healing President when nation needed him.

Excellent book on a president who was often misunderstood. A man of positive thinking, principle, and humility. Did more than I ever knew. Thankful to President Ford for leading this nation when we needed.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved it. Quick read and full of goodness on every page.

[Alex Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very readable. Paints Ford as a very decent man and a healer. An interesting read for me, having grown up in his neck of the woods and having seen him lying in state when I was a high school senior.