The History Buff's Guide to the Presidents (Key People, Places, and Events)

Americans have named schools, counties, rivers, cities, and even their own children after U.S. presidents. Their work is in our laws, their words adorn our monuments, and their countenances appear in a trillion places (mostly on our currency). Can we truly say we understand the office and its phenomenal history? What do we really know about the men who helped transform a struggling republic into a superpower?

Using detailed top-ten lists, historian Thomas R. Flagel offers a provocative new look at an astonishingly resilient institution in The History Buff's Guide? to the Presidents. With diligent research, he explores the best, worst, largest, and most controversial facets of an office that some feared would become a monarchy, others hoped would represent all of the people, and John Adams wanted to call "High Highness, the President of the United States of America, and the Protector of their Liberties."

Chapters include:

• Elections: the closest races, the most vicious campaigns, and the biggest landslides
• Presidential Character: careers, hobbies, the most religious presidents, and the Machiavellians
• The Domestic Sphere: the biggest deficit spenders, the most ambitious programs, vetoes, pardons, and the worst fights with the Supreme Court
• Foreign Affairs: diplomats, doctrines, and ranking the commanders in chief
• The Inner Circle: first ladies and vexing relatives, construction and destruction in the White House, scandals at the highest level, and the real West Wing
• In Retrospect: the most underrated and overrated presidents, assassinations and attempted assassinations, and the greatest changes to the presidency itself
  

Thomas R. Flagel teaches American History at Columbia State Community College in Columbia, Tennessee. He holds degrees from Loras College, Kansas State University, Creighton University, and has studied at the University of Vienna. He currently lives in Franklin, Tennessee.