At a time when most Americans assume that their presidents lie to them, no book could be more essential than bestselling author Eric Alterman's devastating analysis of the costs of executive duplicity. One of the best-known left-of-center journalist-historians in America, Alterman argues that those costs are not merely moral but practical. As examples, he uses four key lies told by presidents in the postwar era. From FDR at Yalta to LBJ in Vietnam, and from JFK in Cuba to Ronald Reagan in Central America, Alterman shows how attempts to mislead the American people ended up haunting their authors and dooming the very policies they were meant to advance. Closing with an examination of the Bush deceptions in Iraq, When Presidents Lie is history at its most compelling.

Provocative, intriguing and insightful. (Los Angeles Times Book Review) Essential reading not only for insiders but for outsiders. (Former White House Counsel John W. Dean, Washington Monthly)

Alterman's "When Presidents Lie" is a compelling historical examination of four specific post-World War II presidential lies whose consequences were greater than could ever have been predicted.

- Alterman's Sound & Fury was a George Orwell Award winner; his Ain't No Sin to Be Glad You're Alive won the Stephen Crane Literary Award

- What Liberal Media? and The Book on Bush were on The New York Times extended bestseller list

Eric Alterman, media columnist for the Nation, is professor of English at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, senior fellow of the Center for American Progress, and "Altercation" weblogger for MSNBC.com. He is the author of five previous books, including What Liberal Media? and Sound and Fury.