Executive Reads
If you're like me, and you like to read, but can't always find the time, I'd like to introduce you to a series of small biographies of the presidents entitled the American Presidents Series. These are a series of compact biographies of the presidents written by very credible historians. True to the adage that "good things come in small packages", they contain a concise but detailed history of each president. The series is edited by the late historian, Pulitzer Prize winner and former presidential speech writer Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. Following is a list of the books and authors:
1. George Washington by James MacGregor Burns and Susan Dunn
2. John Adams by John Patrick Diggins
3. Thomas Jefferson by Joyce Appleby
4. James Madison by Gary Willis
5. James Monroe by Gary Hart
6. John Quincy Adams by Robert Remini
7. Andrew Jackson by Sean Willentz
8. Martin Van Buren by Ted Widmer
9. John Tyler by Gary May
10. James K. Polk by John Seigenthaler
11. Zachary Taylor by John Eisenhower
12. Franklin Pierce by Michael Holt
13. James Buchanan by Jean Baker
14. Abraham Lincoln by George McGovern
15. Ulysses S. Grant by Josiah Bunting III
16. Rutherford B. Hayes by Hans Trefousse
17. James Garfield by Ira Rutkow
18. Chester Alan Arthur by Zachary Karabell
19. Grover Cleveland by Henry Graff
20. Benjamin Harrison by Charles Calhoun
21. William McKinley by Kevin Phillips
22. Theodore Roosevelt by Louis Auchincloss
23. Woodrow Wilson by H. W. Brands
24. Warren G. Harding by John Dean
25. Calvin Coolidge by David Greenburg
26. Herbert Hoover by William Leuchtenberg
27. Franklin Delano Roosevelt by Roy Jenkins
28. Harry S. Truman by Robert Dallek
29. Dwight D. Eisenhower by Tom Wicker
30. Richard M. Nixon by Elizabeth Drew
31. Gerald R. Ford by Douglas Brinkley
32. George H. W. Bush by Timothy Naftali
Of the remaining 11 presidents, some additions to the list are due out in the near future. As far as I could find, they are:
Millard Fillmore by Paul Finkelman (release date June 1, 2010)
Lyndon B. Johnson by Charles Peters (release date June 8, 2010)
John F. Kennedy by Allan Brinkley (release date September 1, 2010)
Jimmy Carter by Julian Zelizer (release date September 14, 2010)
Andrew Johnson by Annette Gordon-Reid (release date December 7, 2010)
William Howard Taft by John Morton Blum (release date May 1, 2012)
and by my count, the five presidents yet to be included in the series are William Henry Harrison, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and of course Barack Obama.
Some of the books are also available on CD. (Currently, I'm listening to the Lincoln bio.) If you're looking for a crash course on your favourite prez, or you just want to kill some time on a flight with some presidential history, I recommend this series.
