Citizen-in-Chief: The Second Lives of the American Presidents - Softcover

Benardo, Leonard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0061718645 ISBN 13: 9780061718649

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks, 2010

Synopsis

Despite their colossal achievements as founding fathers, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe all ended their lives impoverished and in debt.

Ulysses S. Grant saved his family from a life of penury by finishing his bestselling memoirs on the very eve of his death.

Having failed to address HIV-AIDS effectively as president, Bill Clinton directed groundbreaking efforts after leaving office to make life-saving AIDS drugs affordable.

In Citizen-in-Chief, Leonard Benardo and Jennifer Weiss examine the dramatic, little-known, sometimes inspiring, and often heartrending post-presidential lives of former Oval Office occupants. From the high-profile humanitarianism of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton to the quiet achievements of Rutherford B. Hayes and Herbert Hoover, Citizen-in-Chief reveals that the true stories of great leaders are rarely complete once they leave the White House.

About this title

About the Author:

Leonard Benardo and Jennifer Weiss are husband and wife and the coauthors of Brooklyn by Name. Their writing has been published in The New York Review of Books, New York Times, Washington Post, International Herald Tribune, and elsewhere. They live in Brooklyn, New York, with their son and daughter.

Leonard Benardo and Jennifer Weiss are husband and wife and the coauthors of Brooklyn by Name. Their writing has been published in The New York Review of Books, New York Times, Washington Post, International Herald Tribune, and elsewhere. They live in Brooklyn, New York, with their son and daughter.

From Publishers Weekly:

Eight presidents died in office, leaving 34 whose subsequent careers make up this remarkably revealing history. Journalists Benardo and Weiss (coauthors of Brooklyn by Name) point out that America's founders believed pensions smacked of royal privilege, so ex-presidents were on their own. Some have handled the transition more gracefully than others. The invariably sensible George Washington remained solvent, while Jefferson, Madison and Monroe accumulated mountains of debt and died penniless. After the Civil War, entering business became acceptable, but in Grant's case, poor judgment led to disaster. Only when Truman, uninterested in exploiting his name, moved in with his mother-in-law did Congress vote pensions in 1958. Soon after, riches awaited those willing to speak and write memoirs. The authors dub John Quincy Adams and Jimmy Carter our leading postpresidents. Adams served 17 years in the House, a leading antislavery advocate. Carter's diplomatic and humanitarian activities won him a 2002 Nobel Prize. Even without a formal post, say the authors, just a handful of former presidents have withdrawn into anonymity, and this well-researched, opinionated account does a fine job of filling a surprisingly empty historical niche. (Feb. 10)
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About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0061718645
• ISBN 13: 9780061718649
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384