Franklin Pierce was one of the least known, least liked, and least successful presidents in American history. In this new study of his administration, historian Larry Gara makes no attempt to revive Pierce's reputation. Instead he provides a clear analysis of Pierce's shortcomings as well as his few successes.

Franklin Pierce's administration (1853-1857) spanned a turbulent period in the life of the nation: North-South polarization reached new extremes due, in part, to Pierce's failure to understand the depth of Free Soil sentiment in the North; the Kansas-Nebraska Act and its aftermath...

The best of presidents seem to serve in the worst of times, and Woodrow Wilson is no exception. Like Lincoln, Wilson was charged with leading the United States through a war of unprecedented scale. And like Lincoln, he is considered one of the half-dozen best presidents the country has ever had.

From 1913-1921, Wilson grappled with momentous issues: domestic reform, war, and peace. His administration did much to shape twentieth century America--from establishing the U.S. as the preeminent world power to reforming banking practices, from lowering trade barriers to establishing the federal...

In 1829 Andrew Jackson arrived in Washington in a carriage. Eight years and two turbulent presidential terms later, he left on a train. Those years, among the most prosperous in American history, saw America transformed not only by growth in transportation but by the expansion of the market economy and the formation of the mass political party. Jackson's ambivalence--and that of his followers--toward the new politics and the new economy is the story of this book.

Historians have often depicted the Old Hero (or Old Hickory) as bigger than life--so prominent that his name was wed to an era....

Filled with new insights and fresh interpretations, this is the richest study yet published on the presidency of James Monroe, the last Revolutionary War hero to ascend to that august office.

Noble Cunningham's history of the fifth presidency (1817-25) shows a young nation beset by growing pains and led by a cautious politician who had neither the learning nor the intellect of Jefferson or Madison, but whose actions strengthened both the United States and the presidency itself.

Cunningham makes clear that the mislabelled "era of good feelings" had more than its share of crises,...

Perhaps no American president has seemed less suited to his office or his times than Calvin Coolidge. The taciturn New Englander became a vice presidential candidate by chance, then with the death of Warren G. Harding was thrust into the White House to preside dourly over the Roaring Twenties.

Robert Ferrell, one of America's most distinguished historians, offers the first book-length account of the Coolidge presidency in thirty years, drawing on the recently opened papers of White House physician Joel T. Boone to provide a more personal appraisal of the thirtieth president than has...

Twenty-five years after Richard Nixon resigned from office, his legacy remains shrouded in controversy. His was a complex, inconsistent, and even contradictory presidency, shaped by the man's personality and political practices and played out during one of America's most turbulent eras. Melvin Small now draws on the latest archival releases to take a fresh look at Nixon and place his administration in proper historical perspective.

Nixon once predicted that by the year 2000 scholars would begin to evaluate his presidency more favorably. Small, however, steers a steady course between...

Elected in hard times and serving throughout a catastrophic global war, Franklin Delano Roosevelt confronted crises of epic proportions during his record twelve-year tenure as our nation's chief executive. George McJimsey now provides a fresh account of his much-debated presidency, describing the successes and failures of FDR's landmark administration and offering a new perspective on the New Deal.

A welcome synthesis of the best modern scholarship on the Roosevelt administration, McJimsey's study portrays Roosevelt as a pluralist leader whose various New Deal programs empowered the...

The presidency of John F. Kennedy continues to fascinate, even as it also continues to inspire heated debates between admirers and detractors of Camelot's fallen king. Now readers can gain a new appreciation of JFK in this thoroughly revised and updated edition of James Giglio's bestselling study, widely acclaimed as the best and most balanced book on JFK's White House years.

Giglio incorporates the voluminous archival materials made available in the last fifteen years, including the declassified documents on crucial foreign policy affairs and White House medical records that contradict...

He has been called America's greatest ex-president, a man who lost the White House after one term but went on to become a respected spokesman for peace and human rights.

Burton Kaufman's book on the Carter years was hailed as the best account of his administration. This new edition probes more deeply into Jimmy Carter's approach to the presidency and the issues that he faced, placing his tenure in that office more squarely in the context of the fundamental changes taking place in America while he served. It features more information on his foreign and environmental policies and expanded...

First published in 1991, The Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt has won acclaim as a lucid and thorough narrative of Roosevelt's two terms in the White House. Reviewers praised the depth of Lewis L. Gould's research, his comprehensive coverage of major aspects of Roosevelt's tenure, and the persuasiveness of his conclusions about his subject's personalized presidency. Writing in Reviews in American History, Willard Gatewood called the book "essential reading for all who wish to understand the complex, charismatic, and perennially fascinating political figure that was Theodore...