Introduction
The American presidency is arguably the most important office in the world. The chief executive oversees the largest military and economy in the world, as well as millions of federal government employees. While this is a mere utilitarian description of the office, there is much more to it than that. The president is seen as the embodiment of the American people— their wishes, dreams, hopes, and frustrations. While figures as diverse as Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Barack Obama have often represented the best in presidential leadership, there are others, like Richard Nixon and Warren Harding, whose own legacy is more complicated. And in the era of Donald Trump’s second term, the only president other than Grover Cleveland to be elected to two non-consecutive terms, the president's powers and limitations have returned to the public consciousness in a profound way.
The following seven short book reviews cover a wide-range of topics related to the American presidency. Two works on Lincoln, from renowned historian David Herbert Donald and travel author Jan Morris, explore the multifaceted life and times of America’s greatest president. Doris Kearns Goodwin, an aide to President Lyndon B. Johnson and acclaimed presidential historian, gives us a penetrating portrait into LBJ and an insightful meditation on presidential leadership. Michael Dobbs’ day-by-day breakdown of the Watergate scandal and the downfall of President Richard Nixon is a gripping account of a presidency in crisis. The short presidency of Warren G. Harding has been much maligned by historians, but Ryan Walters’ revisionist history of the “Jazz Age President” will make you take a second look at Harding and his accomplishments. Finally, in master historian H.W. Brands’ book on FDR and Charles Lindbergh, we see the debate between internationalism and isolationism, a debate of growing importance in our era.
As with much of history, the perspectives here are written with biases, omissions, and interpretations that may not follow your own convictions. Nevertheless, one gets a broad, varied view of some of the most influential occupants of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Lincoln Reconsidered by David Herbert Donald (1956)
Lincoln Reconsidered by David Herbert Donald (1956) is a collection of essays on the 16th president by one of the most renowned scholars of the Civil War period. Donald attempts, in these explorations of Lincoln, to correct misunderstandings and overturn staid historical analyses. In the essay “Getting Right with Lincoln,” Donald examines the president as an historical figure of lasting influence and how his image and myth continue to shape modern political life. In “Toward a Reconsideration of Abolitionists,” Donald reexamines the class and cultural dynamics of the abolitionist crusade, arguing that it was mostly made up of activists who were in the milieu of antebellum social movements like prohibition and prison reform, among others.
The essays on Lincoln as a political figure are particularly insightful. In “A. Lincoln, Politician,” Donald upends the notion of Lincoln as a man removed from the political waters who sought only statesmanship. In fact, from his days in the Illinois Legislature all the way through the White House, Lincoln was an adept student of politics who used the media and cultural currents to his advantage. In “the Radicals and Lincoln,” he explores the battles between the radical Republicans, who argued for a more forceful form of reconstruction, and Lincoln, who sought a more conciliatory path. “Abraham Lincoln and the American Pragmatic Tradition,” my favorite of the political essays, analyzes Lincoln’s foregoing need to compromise and gradual change, often tempered by moments of swift action, as a manifestation of the broader currents of democratic thinking that embodied his era.
Donald is one the greatest Lincoln scholars, so reading him expound on a wide variety of topics is such a delight, especially for students of the period like myself. I don’t always agree with his conclusions, however. In the concluding essay, “An Excess of Democracy,” I think he underplays the significance of slavery and overemphasizes the tumult of the expanding democratic process as factors that led to the Civil War. Nevertheless, this book is a fantastic foray into the mind of one of the greatest 20th century American historians.
Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream by Doris Kearns Goodwin (1976)
The life and legacy of Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36th President of the United States, is one of my favorite subjects to study in American history. A man who improved the lives of millions through the Great Society while destroying the lives of millions of others in the Vietnam War, Johnson is a complex figure whose triumphs and tragedies are Shakespearean in scope.
Few had as much access to Johnson as did Doris Kearns Goodwin, the Pulitzer-Prize winning historian, who worked for LBJ in the final year of his presidency and afterwards as a key advisor on his presidential memoirs. She conducted scores of interviews with LBJ at his Texas ranch, getting a sense of the politician as well as the man. The result was her first major book of presidential history, Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream (1976). The wide-ranging, penetrating study of Johnson gives readers one of the most intimate and balanced portraits of a man so defined by power and politics.
Born in the hard-scrabble Texas hill country, Johnson was the son of a doting mother and a local politician father. Goodwin gets to the heart of why LBJ was so drawn to politics, as it was a means to overcome the limitations of his father and achieve the lasting love of his mother. Through his 30-plus years in Washington, Johnson served as a congressman during the New Deal, became the most powerful Senate Majority Leader during the Eisenhower era, Vice President during the New Frontier of John F. Kennedy, and President of the United States after Kennedy’s death in Dallas on November 22, 1963.
His domestic agenda, which he called the “Great Society” provided some of the most sweeping social democratic legislation in US history, from landmark civil rights bills and anti-poverty programs to public broadcasting and a national healthcare plan for the aged and poor. Yet, his presidency was ultimately undone by the disastrous war in Vietnam, which upended the Great Society and destroyed his political career.
Goodwin’s sympathetic yet critical portrait is one of the best books ever written on an American President and an essential read for anyone interested in learning about such an integral figure in the American story.
Lincoln: A Foreigner's Quest by Jan Morris (2000)
For those of us who live in the United States, our conception of the sixteenth President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, is often fairly clear. We can conceptualize his importance to the history of our country and the continuing relevance of the Civil War era. But what if you were someone not from the land of Lincoln? What would you think of him in light of your own country’s history?
These questions are partially, as well as beautifully, answered by Jan Morris, in her biography-come-travel-diary, Lincoln: A Foreigner’s Quest (2000). Morris, known for her extensive histories on British history and travel memoirs, turns her attention to the “Great Emancipator” with a critical eye as well as a sympathetic ear. She traces his epic story through the backwoods of Kentucky and the sprawling new Metropolises of Illinois to the heights of power in Washington, D.C. and beyond.
She sees him as a tragic figure, “made for martyrdom,” whose political cunning, pragmatism, and military calculation made him the premier leader of his age as well as the best political writer America ever produced. She also sees his limitations— on slavery, on Native American affairs, and a willingness to turn the other cheek when force was needed. For all his complexity, though, Morris gets the essence of Lincoln right, referring to him as many others did as “a great man who is also good.”
It is an excellent book for readers interested in learning about Lincoln, especially if you know little about him or the era he inhabits. Morris writes in a fun, conversational, and often funny style that reads like a chat over drinks at the local tavern in Springfield. I particularly enjoyed her meditations on Lincoln as a writer, whose influences (the Bible, Shakespeare) he openly wore on his sleeve. In her estimation, Lincoln’s placement at the center of the American story, with all the conclusions that draws, is a correct arrangement for foreigners and native-born alike.
Leadership in Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin (2018)
One of the core qualities that makes for an influential American president is leadership, the ability to take the pulse of the American people and try to carry out their wishes. Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, who worked for President Lyndon Johnson and has dedicated her life to exploring the history of the presidency, explores this theme in her 2018 book, Leadership in Turbulent Times.
She centers her story on four key presidents, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson, and how their lives and presidencies exemplify different but nevertheless integrated forms of leadership. Lincoln embodied the transformational leader when he issued his emancipation proclamation in 1863, using the awesome powers of the presidency, especially in war, to move the country further towards the abolition of slavery. Theodore Roosevelt was a master at crisis management, and his successful brokering of a deal between coal miners and mine owners in 1902 showed this essential quality. Franklin D. Roosevelt, through his New Deal programs that lessened the effects of the Great Depression, personified turnaround leadership. And finally, Lyndon Johnson’s visionary leadership on the vital issue of civil rights, wherein he challenged southern segregationists and supported the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and countless others fighting for equality.
Their own struggles—from Lincoln’s crippling depression in the 1830s and Teddy’s heartbreak at losing his mother and wife on the same day to FDR’s battle against polio and LBJ’s near-fatal heart attack—changed them and, in turn, changed the course of the presidency forever. Each man persevered through their own failings and limitations to lead their nation in times of crisis and transformation.
Goodwin understands these complexities and navigates them well in this book, providing readers with not only history but with lessons that can be applied to any avenue of life. I recommend this to anyone interested in presidential history generally and for those wanting to read Goodwin in particular, as it is a good introduction to one of America’s most esteemed historians.
King Richard: Nixon and Watergate — an American Tragedy by Michael Dobbs (2021)
Hannah Milhous, the unassuming Quaker from Indiana, named all of her sons after legendary English kings, with her most promising son after Richard I, the “Lion-Hearted.” Hence the title of this penetrating look into the downfall of that son: Richard Milhous Nixon, the 37th President of the United States.
In King Richard: Nixon and Watergate — an American Tragedy (2021), investigative journalist and historian Michael Dobbs constructs a painstaking, day-by-day account of the Watergate scandal that paralyzed a government and led to the resignation of Richard Nixon.
On January 20, 1973, the first day of Nixon’s second term, he should’ve been on cloud nine. He won the 1972 election in one of the largest landslides in American history, the Vietnam War was nearly at its close, and his opening to China and rapprochement with the Soviet Union were heralded as foreign policy triumphs. Yet, this brooding, often mercurial man couldn’t quite enjoy himself, for he knew that a storm was coming.
Nearly eight months before, on June 17, 1972, a secret group directed by the White House broke into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate office building in Washington, D.C. Their arrests, subsequent trials, and the exposure of a coverup brought Nixon and his staff to the breaking point.
Dobbs puts you in the room with the key players—Nixon, Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman, advisor John Ehrlichman, legal counsel John Dean, and others—using dialogue recorded on the secret tape recorders installed in the White House. You hear Nixon offering to find hush money for the burglars to Dean, Haldeman and Ehrlichman desperately trying to fend off their resignations, and a litany of other characters attempting to hold the Nixon presidency together.
After the tapes became public, as a result of Nixon aide Alexander Butterfield’s testimony to the Senate Watergate committee, it was only a matter of time before Nixon would be impeached. To avoid that, he resigned on August 9, 1974.
Dobbs’s crisp, engaging prose brings everyone to life and underscores the tragic consequences of the Watergate scandal—not just for Nixon, but for the United States.
The Jazz Age President: Defending Warren G. Harding by Ryan S. Walters (2022)
In perennial rankings of American presidents, Warren G. Harding is often positioned towards the bottom of the list. Having only served two and a half years before his death in 1923, Harding is described by many historians as a lightweight, especially in the light of his predecessor, Woodrow Wilson. The bevy of scandals associated with his presidency, from Teapot Dome to the corruption of his Attorney General, dampened any modern historical enthusiasm for Harding. Yet, as Ryan S. Walters documents in his book, The Jazz Age President: Defending Warren G. Harding (2022), there's a lot more to the newspaper editor turned president than previously considered, and some of it is rather good.
Harding was immensely popular at the time of his death, as were his policies of shrinking the federal government after World War I, freeing political prisoners, and bringing down the size of the U.S. military. Elected on a theme of “returning to normalcy,” Harding’s leadership was in stark contrast to his predecessor, Woodrow Wilson, who left office a deeply unpopular president. When Wilson’s growth of the federal government and call for international alliances with nations after WWI grew to be seen as overwrought, the public chose the genial, less grandiose leadership of Harding.
He was the first president to establish an office of the budget, paid down the nation’s debts after the war, improved relations with Latin America, especially after removing troops from Cuba, and presided over the Washington Naval Conference, which called for the dramatic drawdown of American ships. He also hired African Americans for federal positions, reversing the segregationist policies of the overtly racist Wilson, called for a national lynching law, and was the first president to speak on civil rights in the deep south since the Civil War. And in an act of political courage, he freed political prisoners of World War I, such as the socialist leader Eugene V. Debs, who he hosted at the White House in 1921.
Another positive element of Harding’s tenure was the development of economic policies that shepherded the county out of a deep, post-war depression through budgetary restraint and tax reform. While many have painted his administration as a pro-business one, and in many respects that was the case, he also tried his best to support labor. He was deeply troubled by the excessive force used against striking railway workers in 1922, even by his own administration, and lobbied successfully for the implementation of an 8-hour workday in the steel industry.
The political scandals were real, but none ever implicated him directly and he removed some corrupt officials before his death in 1923. Like Ulysses S. Grant before him, Harding was a trusting man who put too much trust in the wrong people. Additionally, the scandals involving his extramarital affairs were also real and abhorrent, but not uncommon for a president (think of FDR, JFK, and LBJ as examples). Nevertheless, Harding should be remembered as a good president who guided the nation out of a deeply difficult period with openness, restraint, and humility. He accomplished more in the two and a half years he was president than some presidents did in four or eight.
Walters is a deft hand guiding you through the complex politics and economics of the era, being honest about Harding’s faults as well as his victories. While Walters’ political perspective is not my own (he is a right libertarian), I nevertheless find a lot to like in his interpretation of Harding’s conservatism, especially the drawing down of the American empire and freeing political prisoners like Debs. If the conservative movement in America were more like Harding, the country would be in a much better place.
This book is an excellent overview of the politics and economics of a crucial period of American history, one often overshadowed by the Great Depression and the New Deal. Warren Harding’s reputation deserves a second look, and Walters’ book is the polestar of that reimagining.
America First: Roosevelt vs. Lindbergh in the Shadow of War by H. W. Brands (2024)
During the 1930s and early 1940s, there was an intense debate in the United States about its involvement in European wars, with consequences that still live with us today. At the center of this debate were the internationalists, who believed that America had a responsibility to promote democracy abroad, and isolationists, who saw American involvement in Europe as a fool’s errand that would subvert American democracy at home. While many figures of the period represented both sides, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and aviator Charles Lindbergh were the emblematic examples of internationalism and isolationism, respectively.
In America First: Roosevelt vs. Lindbergh in the Shadow of War, acclaimed historian H. W. Brands expounds on the clear differences between the 32nd president and the influential aviator. Lindbergh, a celebrity who flew a legendary trans-Atlantic flight in the “Spirit of St. Louis,” was a complex man who both embraced the new and celebrated the old. He was deeply uncomfortable with American involvement in Europe after World War I, as he saw it as a dangerous path that would propel America towards dictatorship. Roosevelt, by contrast, had served as undersecretary of the Navy during World War I and believed that America’s commitment to democracy and human rights compelled the United States to intervene in Europe, especially in its support of Britain.
The looming threat of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime brought their competing visions to the forefront of American life. Roosevelt continued to support neutrality while also supporting Britain via the lend-lease program; Lindbergh became an outspoken opponent of FDR and a leading figure in the America First Committee. Lindbergh’s own anti-semitism would undermine his own advocacy of non-involvement and dash the hopes of the America First Committee, which Roosevelt took advantage of. Ultimately, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 would make the great debate moot.
Brands’ excellent writing style—which is conversational, yet scholarly—gives readers a front-row seat to one of the most important debates in American history, one with implications that still haunt us today.
