Secret Lives of the U.S. Presidents

When we participate in a Presidential election, we're being asked to make a very important choice. We're electing someone to join a very powerful and elite group of men who have shaped the history of the world in the last 200-odd years. It's an important decision, to be sure, and not one to be taken lightly. Will our next President be a political powerhouse, a man who is able to take the reins of the country and lead it into a better and more just future? Will he be inept or corrupt, allowing his cronies and his pals to use the nation for their own personal gain? Or perhaps he'll simply be a cipher, one of those Presidents who is forgotten by everyone except for over-achieving elementary school kids who think that everyone will be impressed that they know who Zachary Taylor was. We don't know, and we can't know, and that's one of the most interesting lessons of this book. Every President, from Washington to Dubya, was elected by the people in the hopes that he was the right man to lead the country. Every President was praised and damned. Every President was, before the election, sold as the one man who could save the nation from ruin and despair. If not all of those Presidents lived up to their hype, well, therein lies the lesson.... For people who like their history to be amusing and bite-sized, this is the book for you. It's a "gateway book" for Presidential history - you read this and then go on to read more serious treatments of the Presidents, hopefully becoming more appreciative of the vast spectrum of personalities that have guided our nation. And what an interesting group it's been. There are, of course, the heavy-hitters that everyone knows. Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, both Roosevelts, Johnson (Lyndon, not Andrew), all men who made their marks on America. Washington, of course, set the entire tone of the Presidency. He demanded formality, and the acknowledgment that the office of President was one that should be treated with respect. At the same time, he didn't want to be revered, or treated like American royalty. His decision to serve only two terms of office became unbreakable tradition, at least until FDR, and then law with the adoption of the 22nd Amendment. While the stories that are attributed to him are mostly apocryphal - chopping down the cherry tree, throwing a dollar across the Rappahannock, wooden teeth - the real stories are even better. He spent vast sums of money on alcohol, had a terrible temper, and probably wouldn't even have been the President if he hadn't married Martha Custis. In short, Washington was human, just like the other forty-two who followed him. Then there are the infamous - the Presidents who are excoriated for their misdeeds and who are the ones we all wish never actually happened. Nixon, Hoover, Buchannan, Harding, Pierce.... These are the ones you tell your children about when they turn 18 and they're wondering who to vote for. Warren G. Harding, for example, was only Presi

I found this book to be a very entertaining read about the men who have served our country as President. If you are looking for a serious history book, this is not it. But if you are looking to learn something about the men who have held the highest office in the land, and at the same time be entertained - this is a great book. I found it very interesting that several reviewers thought the author had an "agenda" or was "partisan". The amusing thing about these claims is that half the claims are from reviewers who think the author leaned to the left, and the other half from reviewers who thought he leaned to the right! How can the author be biased in BOTH directions?!? I can only assume that the reviewers who claimed bias in one way or the other are those that are either extremists to the right or left, and have a very biased opinion themselves. For instance, one reviewer writes that he "found this book to be biased toward the right, with nothing bad to say about George W. Bush's Iraq War" and "makes unproven, unsubstantiated claims about Bill Clinton..." Then another reviewer states that the "bias in regard to Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush begs for clarification or at least a recognition of the author's preference for left of center politics." I could list example after example. If you are an extreme righty or lefty, maybe you shouldn't read this book if you will get your feelings hurt. Otherwise, for the majority of the electorate that does not have blinders on and realizes that there is good and bad in everyone, including the Presidents, I highly recommend this book.

This book is an encyclopedia of anedoctes about US presidents. Each president has 5 pages dedicated to himself. It is written in a fun way, you can just pick it up and read some info about the president you like or dislike, or just read it through like a regular novel. This is history the way i like it, it does not only mention the great achievements and failures of each president, it focuses on everyday things that made each of them just like everyone else, yet unique in their own ways. This book should be taught in high school, it would definitly make kids enjoy history. But really this book is for anyone who wants to learn about the little known facts of our past and present "leaders".

I had expected that lurking secretly behind a provocative title and cover design was yet another witless compilation of oft-related and tiresome Presidential yarns. You know the kind of drab anecdotal volume that you can't help but read with a dishwatery David McCullough narration in your head. However, I was pleasantly surprised, after reading the first few pages of Mr. O'Brien's book, to have been quickly disabused of this notion. In short: This ain't your Daddy's history of the Presidents. In Secret Lives of the U.S. Presidents, O'Brien doles out the juicy Presidential dope in a witty, concise and hilariously irreverent style that is informative, yet exceptionally entertaining. From G.W. to G.W. Bush - with illuminating factoids and amusing anecdotes - Secret Lives paints a colorful picture of our nation's great (and not-so-great) leaders as being abundantly human and all too fallible. It's enough to make Mount Rushmore blush.Well written, and beautifully (if not comically) illustrated, this book is a must for even a casual fan of American history. I highly recommend it to all!

This book emphasizes one very important lesson that high school history textbooks always seem to forget: our presidents were not only leaders but real people---flawed, neurotic, a little dishonest (sometimes), very insecure (a lot of the times!), and very, very human. O'Brien has dug up some truly fascinating trivia (Reagan applied for membership in the Communist Party as a young man...but was turned down!). The illustrations are gorgeous--42 full-page portraits of every president in ridiculous or outlandish situations (they even show John Quincy Adams skinny-dipping in the Potomac). And the cover gimmick is icing on the cake (you can see George Washington peeking out through the star...when you open it up, he's actually drinking a mug of port...and clearly enjoying it). Highly Recommended.