geeky
This doesn't mean that isn't an enjoyable book to read. History should not be the property of an elite class of academics, and Strauss has fun with his trek through Buchanan's life and times and his examination of Buchanan's failings. It is a very personal experience for him, and the author injects stories of his family and his inspiration for his interest in history. He makes a very convincing case for why Buchanan deserves to be the caboose at the end of the train when it comes to presidential rankings, and he also makes the point that ranking presidents isn't a very useful or meaningful exercise, especially when it comes to presidents who have recently served in the oval office.
James Buchanan was a ditherer who had no qualms about supporting the interest of southern slaveholders, who improperly used his office to influence the outcome of the pivotal Supreme Court decision in the Dred Scott case, who fiddled while the union burned and states seceded, and who left office with fewer states than he began with. Strauss contrasts this record with that of other lesser light chief executives to support the correctness of his book's title.
If you are nit-picky about your history, the author's occasional sloppiness in some of the facts he asserts will frustrate you, as they did me. For example, Strauss writes (at page 79) that Martin Van Buren's wife sided with Peggy Eaton in the so-called "Petticoat Affair" when Andrew Jackson's cabinet split because some of the cabinet wives shunned Mrs. Eaton socially. In fact, Van Buren was a widower at the time and his wife had died in 1819, nine years before Jackson became president. Strauss says in a couple of places in the book that James K. Polk died six months after leaving office (it was actually just over three months or 103 days). These are just two examples, but the author should know better.
Strauss does make a convincing argument that, contrary to frequent speculation, Buchanan probably wasn't gay. He also points out that while he wasn't a very good president, Buchanan was a good uncle or "Nunc" to his niece Harriet Lane, who served in the role of first lady during the Buchanan administration, and who worked tirelessly to rehabilitate Buchanan's historical reputation and maintain his legacy.
If you like your history non-stuffy, light and conversational, you should enjoy this book. If you're looking for something more substantial and authoritative, you should probably look elsewhere.