Kategoria BISAC: Biography & Autobiography >> Presidents & Heads of State

Reagan's War is the story of Ronald Reagan's personal and political journey as an anti-communist, from his early days as an actor to his years in the White House. Challenging popular misconceptions of Reagan as an empty suit who played only a passive role in the demise of the Soviet Union, Peter Schweizer details Reagan's decades-long battle against communism.

Bringing to light previously secret information obtained from archives in the United States, Germany, Poland, Hungary, and Russia--including Reagan's KGB file--Schweizer offers a compelling case that Reagan personally mapped...

Essays examine Churchill's family life, foreign policy, social reforms, economic ideas, views on Zionism, and relationship with the monarchy and fellow statesmen.

"A brilliant, stunning, magnificent book. One of the most important figures of the twentieth century, who had a lot to do with setting the stage for the twenty-first, Khrushchev finally has the biography he deserves--deep and detailed yet fast-paced, scholarly yet not stuffy, historical yet intensely human. Taubman brings Khrushchev alive in all his complexity, capturing both the humanity that somehow survived in him and became the bedrock for his political decency, and the cynicism that made him part of the brutality of the Soviet system. The book has the sweep of a Big Book about a Big...

As President of the United States, Andrew Johnson presided disastrously over the tumultuous first years of the Reconstruction period in America, Uneducated but shrewd, he was fatally unable to adapt to new political realities. This biography draws upon voluminous printed resources.

The seminal biography of one of America's towering, enigmatic figures. From his boyhood in Ohio to the battlefields of the Civil War and his presidency during the crucial years of Reconstruction, this Pulitzer Prize-winning biography traces the entire arc of Grant's life (1822-1885). "A moving and convincing portrait....profound understanding of the man as well as his period and his country." C. Vann Woodward, New York Review of Books "Clearsightedness, along with McFeely's unfailing intelligence and his existential sympathy...informs his entire biography." Justin Kaplan, The New Republic"

This is the first comprehensive biography of Khrushchev and the first of any Soviet leader to reflect the full range of sources that have become available since the USSR collapsed. Combining a page-turning historical narrative with penetrating political and psychological analysis, this book brims with the life and excitement of a man whose story personified his era

Vividly evoking the political and social upheavals of post-Revolutionary France, Hibbert captures the vibrant characters who made history, not only on the battlefield but also in the bedroom, including Josephine, the charming Creole from Martinique; the plain and pliant Marie-Louise of Austria; and Marie Walewska, the sumptuous young Polish countess who, despite initial reluctance, was persuaded by her elderly husband to fall in love with Napoleon. Praised by A. N. Wilson as an "outstanding popular historian," Hibbert dramatically brings to life the most intimate influences on Napoleon's...

Drawing on new primary sources, this biography is the first to detail the influence of British history, literature, and culture--in particular, the ideas of Winston Churchill--on America's thirty-fifth president. For the first time we trace the friendships and forces that led to the White House and shaped Kennedy's actions there. In this intimate portrait of a leader torn between politics and principle, we finally come to know the man Kennedy wanted to be and to understand his long, private struggle to become that man.

For the sheer magnitude, depth and authority of its revelations, The Power Broker stands alone---a huge and galvanizing biography revealing not only the virtually unknown saga of one man's incredible accumulation of power, but the hidden story of the shaping (and mis-shaping) of New York through the past half-century.

Robert Caro's monumental book makes public what few outsiders have known: that Robert Moses was the single most powerful man of our time in the City and in the State of New York. And in telling the Moses story, Caro both opens up to an unprecedented degree the way in...

This is the story of the rise to national power of a desperately poor young man from the Texas Hill Country. The Path to Power reveals in extraordinary detail the genesis of the almost superhuman drive, energy, and ambition that set LBJ apart. It follows him from the Hill Country to New Deal Washington, from his boyhood through the years of the Depression to his debut as Congressman, his heartbreaking defeat in his first race for the Senate, and his attainment, nonetheless, at age 31, of the national power for which he hungered. In this book, we are brought as close as we have ever been to a...

One of the most acclaimed books of our time, winner of both the Pulitzer and the Francis Parkman prizes, The Power Broker tells the hidden story behind the shaping (and mis-shaping) of twentieth-century New York (city and state) and makes public what few have known: that Robert Moses was, for almost half a century, the single most powerful man of our time in New York, the shaper not only of the city's politics but of its physical structure and the problems of urban decline that plague us today.

In revealing how Moses did it--how he developed his public authorities into a political...

Based on archival material, this intriguing book examines David Ben-Gurion's influence on the relationship between the state of Israel, the Zionist Organization and American Jewry between 1948 and 1963 when he served as Prime Minister and Minister of Defence. The author discusses how Ben-Gurion was largely instrumental in forming Israel's policies throughout the first two decades of the country's existence and, due to his position, personality and prestige, he was able to influence the fashioning of political structures as well as their content.

The book discusses both the...

The new edition of this extremely well-received political biography of Vladimir Putin builds on the strengths of the first edition to provide the most detailed and nuanced account of the man, his politics and his profound influence on Russian politics, foreign policy and society. New to this edition:

• analysis of Putin's second term as President
• more biographical information in the light of recent research
• detailed discussion of changes to the policy process and the elites around Putin
• developments in state-society relations including the conflicts...

Drawing on documents from the Roosevelt Presidential Library as well as visits to Lucy's homes, this is the first book to delve into this hidden side of FDR's life - his thirty-one year affair with his mistress Lucy Mercer.

The life and times of America's most famous champion of liberty, a man of peace whose fate was to lead a nation at war with itself. Join young Lincoln in the Kentucky wilderness and see how his thirst for knowledge and justice led him to the presidency, where he would be called upon to preserve the Union and abolish the evil of slavery forever.

When Thomas Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, he left behind a series of mysteries that have captured the imaginations of historical investigators for generations. In Jefferson's Secrets, Andrew Burstein draws on sources previous biographers have glossed over or missed entirely. Beginning with Jefferson's last days, Burstein shows how Jefferson confronted his own mortality. Burstein also tackles the crucial questions history has yet to answer: Did Jefferson love Sally Hemings? What were his attitudes towards women? Did he believe in God? How did he wish to be remembered? The result is a...

Acclaim for Lafayette

""I found Mr. Unger's book exceptionally well done. It's an admirable account of the marquis's two revolutions-one might even say his two lives-the French and the American. It also captures the private Lafayette and his remarkable wife, Adrienne, in often moving detail."" -Thomas Fleming, author, Liberty : The American Revolution

""Harlow Unger's Lafayette is a remarkable and dramatic account of a life as fully lived as it is possible to imagine, that of Gilbert de Motier, marquis de Lafayette. To American readers Unger's biography will provide a stark reminder...

Critical Acclaim for ADENAUER

"A gripping narrative . . . brings to life an intriguing historical figure . . . an enthralling perspective on the processes that shaped the postwar world." --Daily Telegraph (London)

"Charts the ironies of Adenauer's complicated life. This is the story of a marathon man, but it is narrated at the pace of a sprinter and with the elegance of a hurdler."--The Times (London)

"Lucid and engaging. This is a well-researched and elegantly written volume which deserves a wider readership than the purely political."--The Herald...

The outpouring of grief and heartfelt tributes following Ronald Reagan's death demonstrated the love and admiration people still have for our nation's 40th president. Now, in this affectionate memoir, Reagan's chief political strategist and friend for 36 years offers a fascinating close-up portrait of the Great Communicator. Taking us inside the 1980 and 1984 presidential campaigns and beyond, Dick Wirthlin shares illuminating anecdotes, off-the-record remarks, and private moments that reveal the true Ronald Reagan. Through it all, Wirthlin points out the unique qualities and talents that...