Synopses & Reviews
From the acclaimed bestselling author of The Conquerors Michael Beschloss has brought us a brilliantly readable and inspiring saga about crucial times in America's history when a courageous President dramatically changed the future of the United States.
With surprising new sources and a dazzling command of history and human character, Beschloss brings to life these flawed, complex men -- and their wives, families, friends and foes. Never have we had a more intimate, behind-the-scenes view of Presidents coping with the supreme dilemmas of their lives.
You will be in the room with the private George Washington, braving threats of impeachment and assassination to make peace with England. John Adams, incurring his party's "unrelenting hatred" by refusing to fight France and warning his enemies, "Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war." Andrew Jackson, in a death struggle against the corrupt Bank of the United States. Abraham Lincoln, risking his Presidency to insist that slaves be freed.
Beschloss also shows us Theodore Roosevelt, taunting J. P. Morgan and the Wall Street leaders who dominated his party. Franklin Roosevelt, defying the isolationists -- and maybe the law -- to stop Adolf Hitler. Harry Truman, risking a walkout by top officials to recognize a Jewish state. John Kennedy, the belated champion of civil rights, complaining that he has cost himself a second term. And finally, two hundred years after Washington, Ronald Reagan, irking some of his oldest backers to seek an end to the Cold War.
As Beschloss shows in this gripping and important book, none of these Presidents was eager to incur ridicule, vilification or threats of political destruction and even assassination. But in the end, bolstered by friends and family, hidden private beliefs and, sometimes, religious faith, each ultimately proved himself to be, in Andrew Jackson's words, "born for the storm."
Review
"Michael Beschloss...is clearly the most widely recognized Presidential historian in the nation.... Most Presidential historians...content themselves with writing biographies of individual Presidents.... And Beschloss has done that too.... But if any book can be said to epitomize the genre of Presidential history, Presidential Courage does." -- Mary Beth Norton, The New York Times Book Review
Synopsis
From the acclaimed bestselling author of The Conquerors
Michael Beschloss's dramatic and inspiring saga explores crucial times when a courageous President changed the history of the United States. With surprising new sources and a dazzling command of history and human character, Beschloss brings these flawed, complex men -- and their wives, families, friends and foes -- to life as if in a gripping novel. Never have we had a more intimate, behind-the-scenes view of Presidents coping with the supreme dilemmas of their lives.
In Presidential Courage you will witness George Washington braving threats of impeachment and assassination to make peace with England; John Adams, incurring his party's "unrelenting hatred" by refusing to fight France and warning, "Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war;" Andrew Jackson, in a death struggle against the corrupt Bank of the United States; Abraham Lincoln, risking his Presidency to insist that slaves be freed, as well as the crushing ordeals faced by Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan.
As Beschloss shows, none of these Presidents was eager to incur ridicule, vilification or threats of political destruction and even assassination. But in the end, each ultimately proved himself to be, in Andrew Jackson's words, "born for the storm."
About the Author
Michael Beschloss has been called "the nation's leading Presidential historian" by Newsweek. He has written eight books on American Presidents and is NBC News Presidential Historian, as well as contributor to PBS's The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and two sons.Michael Beschloss has been called "the nation's leading Presidential historian" by Newsweek. He has written eight books on American Presidents and is NBC News Presidential Historian, as well as contributor to PBS's The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and two sons.
Table of Contents
Contents
Preface
Chapter One
a speedy death to general washington!
Chapter Two
kick this treaty to hell!
Chapter Three
the damnedest liar
Chapter Four
he may retire with undiminish'd glory
Chapter Five
rivalries irritated to madness
Chapter Six
oh, that i was a soldier!
Chapter Seven
rocks and quicksands on all sides
Chapter Eight
the most splendid diamond in my crown
Chapter Nine
i will kill it!
Chapter Ten
not a man to be forced
Chapter Eleven
i was born for the storm
Chapter Twelve
who would have had the courage?
Chapter Thirteen
i am going to be beaten
Chapter Fourteen
too angelic for this devilish rebellion
Chapter Fifteen
a well-meaning baboon
Chapter Sixteen
the country will be saved
Chapter Seventeen
i see dynamite
Chapter Eighteen
black storm
Chapter Nineteen
a rough-and-tumble man
Chapter Twenty
i upset them all
Chapter Twenty-one
we must protect the chief!
Chapter Twenty-two
gloom personified
Chapter Twenty-three
salute your caesar?
Chapter Twenty-four
we have avoided a putsch
Chapter Twenty-five
no people except the hebrews
Chapter Twenty-six
the right place at the right time
Chapter Twenty-seven
how could this have happened?
Chapter Twenty-eight
i am cyrus!
Chapter Twenty-nine
they never show their passion
Chapter Thirty
go get him, johnny boy!
Chapter Thirty-one
it's going to be a civil war
Chapter Thirty-two
a man has to take a stand
Chapter Thirty-three
we win and they lose!
Chapter Thirty-four
it left me greatly depressed
Chapter Thirty-five
don't worry that i've lost my bearings
Chapter Thirty-six
a miracle has taken place
Epilogue presidential courage
Notes
Sources
Acknowledgments
Index