best biography of each president

The Ideal Biography for Every Single President

Ask most anyone to name all 44 United State presidents, and the odds are good they’ll stall after a dozen or two. Which is totally understandable—between guys who were president for only a few weeks, to a few who were president twice non-consecutively, the numbering gets a little wonky (not to mention there are more than a few Presidents who are, honestly, forgettable). Still, those who don’t know their history are doomed to repeat it, and for some reason that lesson seems more important than ever, so: here are our picks for the best presidential biographies of all 44 men who have served as our chief executive.

Paperback $19.99

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Washington: The Indispensable Man

By James Thomas Flexner

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Flexner originally published a four-volume biography of our first president, an imposing set of books that was appropriately epic for the father of our country, but also bordering on unreadably dense. A few years later he condensed those nearly 2,000 pages into this much more streamlined book, adding in maps and illustrations and making the text more readable. The result is a near-perfect balance of research, storytelling, and historical perspective on a man buried under legend and propaganda.

Paperback $22.00

By David McCullough

Despite his crucial role in the revolution, for a long time many regarded Adams simply as the guy who took over when Washington stepped aside—as an extension of the first president’s guiding hand. In this Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, McCullough rectifies that, showing Adams to be a fascinating character and a potent political force. While McCullough has been accused of being partial to Adams and showing him in the best possible light at all times (an accusation that’s certainly true to some extent), this prejudice actually helps the book when combined with McCullough’s natural novelistic style, resulting in a work that has done much to elevate Adams to his rightful place in the hierarchy of leaders.

American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson

By Joseph J. Ellis

Jefferson is probably the least knowable of all the presidents. Even his contemporaries didn’t seem to really “get” him, and he was so careful in his public and private communications, his personality remains opaque to modern audiences. Ellis’ genius move here is to write a biography that’s more of a psychological analysis than a life story. The result is a remarkably well-balanced look at Jefferson, shading in both his virtues (no one doubts he was a genius, or that he had firm principles he was prepared to fight for) and his deficits (conversely, no one likewise doubts he held a grudge like no other).

Paperback $29.50

James Madison: A Biography / Edition 1

By Ralph Ketcham

Our fourth president is often forgotten by those who have been out of school for a while, but Madison was a key force in the early days of our country. His work guiding the composition and adoption of the constitution can’t be minimized, and when he stepped into the presidency, he’d already served the previous administrations in high-level roles. Ketcham had access to original documents and letters that no one else had been able to work with before, and this long, dense biography is an impressively complete look at a man often given short shrift.

Paperback $21.99

The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation's Call to Greatness

By Harlow Giles Unger

Unger achieves something with his look at the life of our fifth president that is rare in any biography: he brings Monroe to vivid life. While some have accused Unger of being less-than objective in his consistent praise of Monroe, he manages to sketch out the man, tracing his humble origins and showing how a man who wasn’t at the intellectual or charismatic caliber of his predecessors could become one of the most important presidents in history. Monroe emerges as a cunning, resolute man who was self-aware when it came to his own flaws, who asserted himself through stubborn insistence. Unger’s writing style is lively and compelling, too, making this an entertaining read to boot.

eBook $14.99

John Quincy Adams: A Public Life, A Private Life

By Paul C. Nagel

Most often remembered as a member of the two father-son president duos (the others being George H. W. and George W. Bush), John Quincy Adams is often something of a cipher. Nagel gained access to Adams’ diary, an impressively multi-volume personal account that makes this biography almost an autobiography, because so much of it is pulled directly from Adams’ own thoughts and writing. Not only does this allow Nagel to explore Adams intimately, it also gives a glimpse into what America was like in the early 19th century, when many Americans had been born citizens of the British Empire.

Paperback $24.00

American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House

By Jon Meacham

Jackson is one of the most significant presidents to hold the office, a man who utterly transformed the role of the chief executive and set history in motion. Meacham’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biography is far and away the best book about Jackson’s life ever written. Curiously, it’s not a comprehensive life story; similarly to Unger’s treatment of Monroe, Meacham tries to get into the head of Jackson and paint a portrait of the man, as opposed to a recitation of events and decisions. Unlike Unger, Meacham has to rely on third-party accounts, and the result is a Jackson you understand, yet don’t feel like you truly know.

eBook $11.99

Martin Van Buren: The American Presidents Series: The 8th President, 1837-1841

By Ted Widmer Editor Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.

Van Buren languished for decades as one of the least-regarded presidents, his administration sometimes considered a failure on almost every level. A proponent of small government, he tried to stick to his philosophical guns during one of the first major economic crises of the young nation, and for a long time, that was his legacy. Widmer brilliantly expands Van Buren’s legacy to more than just the relative failure of his administration, pointing out a lifetime of accomplishment and hard work and raising Van Buren’s profile to something closer to what the man deserves.

eBook $19.95

Mr. Jefferson's Hammer: William Henry Harrison and the Origins of American Indian Policy

By Robert M. Owens

At first blush, Owens’ book seems too narrowly focused: it concentrates primarily on Harrison’s time on the American frontier, as a military officer and governor of the Indiana territory. For the story of Harrison, however, this is everything—especially considering he died after just a month in office. During his years on the frontier, he wrestled with the two issues that would come to define the country in the 19th century: slavery and our relations with Native Americans. As the last president to have been born a British subject, Harrison is also a convenient dividing line in American history, and the examination of his experiences as the country rapidly spread over the continent is fascinating.

Hardcover $35.00

John Tyler (American Presidents Series)

By Gary May Editor Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. , Sean Wilentz

Our first “accidental” president (he ascended when Harrison died in office) had a relatively unremarkable tenure, and this short biography is suitably clean and direct. While the book confirms the general consensus that John Tyler was not an exciting or particularly deep man, it does put his presidency into context, and succeeds in making a fairly dull man at least a little interesting.

Paperback $18.00

Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America

By Walter R. Borneman

Polk is probably the most important and effective president to receive the least amount of historical attention; few people realize just how influential he was on the country’s political development. Borneman’s 2008 biography, in fact, was the first major work written about Polk in decades. It’s a fantastic book, providing crucial context on how Polk’s predecessors set up the environment he found himself in when he took office in 1845, a moment in history when the United States was on the cusp of becoming a more modern nation more familiar to today’s readers.

Paperback $25.95

Zachary Taylor: Soldier, Planter, Statesman of the Old Southwest

By K. Jack Bauer

Despite a lengthy military career and a second chapter that culminated in becoming president, Taylor isn’t a particularly interesting personality; by all accounts he was just a guy, you know? The book Bauer produced is a must-read for anyone interested in presidential history for two reasons, though: first, the depth of research is astounding—Bauer crafts a complete picture of Taylor’s life and the world he inhabited seemingly effortlessly; second, this is one of the few presidential biographies where the author seems completely objective—there is very little worship in Bauer’s pages, in which Taylor seems to become less admirable as you make your way through the book.

eBook $5.99

Millard Fillmore: Biography Of A President

By Robert J. Rayback

The amazing thing about Millard Fillmore is that his early political life, in which he navigated the ruthless channels of New York’s political machine and the Whig Party, is one million times more exciting and memorable than his presidency—which, let’s face it, you’ve already forgotten about (or never learned about in the first place). Fillmore’s administration was so sleepy that very few people have bothered writing about him, and Rayback’s 1959 (!) book remains the best effort—and it’s a great book that finds a fascinating man in a dull president.

Hardcover $34.00

Franklin Pierce (American Presidents Series)

By Michael F. Holt Editor Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. , Sean Wilentz

This short but effective biography offers great insight into one of the most disastrous presidencies in American history. Pierce is fascinating because he wasn’t stupid, or ineffective. As you read this book you’ll find a smart, charismatic man whose commitment to holding together a political and social center that was rapidly disintegrating led him to make some of the worst decisions possible, decisions that many people blame in part for the disaster of the Civil War. That makes Pierce a crucial president to understand despite his failures, and this is the ideal book to accomplish that.

Paperback $12.99

James Buchanan: The biography of the 15th president of the United States and his unpopular legacy

By United Library

In many ways, Buchanan’s presidency was doomed from the start; the question of who could possibly have steered the country away from the Civil War in 1857 has very, very few answers. As a result, Buchanan is usually lumped in on a short list of “worst” presidents and forgotten. Leaving behind a legacy of debate and scrutiny, perhaps James Buchanan was a man who never had a chance and thus deserving of at least some sympathy and respect.

Paperback $35.00

Abraham Lincoln: A Life

By Michael Burlingame

Some might suggest Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals as the best Lincoln book, and we wouldn’t argue—but Team of Rivals isn’t a biography. For that, Burlingame’s huge, dense work is your go-to choice, and will probably remain so for the foreseeable future. Lincoln’s life doesn’t lack for analysis, but Burlingame combines impeccably detailed research with a writing style that makes this a fun read as well as an educational one. Of course, when it comes to Goodwin’s classic, no one says you can’t read two Lincoln books, right?

Paperback $28.95

Andrew Johnson: A Biography

By Hans L. Trefousse

By all accounts, Andrew Johnson was an unremarkable and slightly sketchy man; he was selected as Abraham Lincoln’s running mate in 1864 mainly because he was the only sitting Senator from the Confederacy to remain firmly with the Union, and became President when Lincoln was assassinated. He’s remembered today mainly for being the first sitting president to be impeached, but his backstory is 100 percent American: born into extreme poverty, he made his way through life and rose through the ranks due to a combination of hard work and simple loyalty. He was a terrible president, but Trefousse finds the man inside the history.

By Ron Chernow

Chernow is poised to do for Grant what he did for Alexander Hamilton, though it remains to be seen if a hip hop-infused Broadway musical will be made from this new book. What is certain is that Grant is as fascinating a character as Hamilton—a man who went from a personal and professional nadir in 1861 to being in charge of the Union armies by 1864, and President of the United States by 1868—only to preside over one of the most corrupt administrations of all time. If anyone can plumb the central mystery of Grant’s contradictions, it’s Chernow.

Rutherford B. Hayes: The American Presidents Series: The 19th President, 1877-1881

By Hans L. Trefousse Editor Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.

Few presidents left as little mark on history as Hayes, a man who barely scraped into office through the Compromise of 1877 and whose strong sense of ethics and morality could have been formidable but were instead limiting. Trefousse is once again the go-to historian to get a sense of Hayes as a man and a politician; this briskly-paced biography underscores Hayes’ essential goodness while detailing his failure to translate that rectitude into concrete policies or a lasting legacy. Hayes is one of the most opaque men to serve as chief executive, and Trefousse does better than most in piercing that blank facade.

Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President

By Candice Millard

Millard’s classic biography is more like a work of historical fiction than a biography, but that’s what makes it work so well, especially for a president who served six months before being assassinated—and who would have survived the attempt had his doctor’s sterilized their hands and instruments or been monumentally incompetent in general. Garfield barely had time to establish a legacy as president, but Millard manages to capture the man and even hint at what might have been in what is regarded as one of the best presidential biographies ever written.

Chester Alan Arthur (American Presidents Series)

By Zachary Karabell Editor Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.

Chester Arthur is no one’s favorite president, and yet he managed one notable achievement in his 3+ years in office after taking over for Garfield: the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act. This was all the more remarkable considering that Arthur was known as a shady machine politician when he took office. Karabell’s excellent if brief biography paints a portrait of a surprisingly multifaceted man; you might think Arthur is a footnote in the list of presidents, but he’s a much more interesting figure than you suspect.

Grover Cleveland (American Presidents Series)

By Henry F. Graff Editor Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.

Grover Cleveland was elected president twice, in non-consecutive terms, and actually won the popular vote when Benjamin Harrison was elected in 1888—and yet he’s often overlooked. Even more surprising is the fact that Cleveland was actually an effective president. While he might not be on anyone’s Top 10 list, he has a solid list of achievements and dominated American politics for years. Graff paints a portrait of a man who was, if nothing else, decisive: Cleveland never dithered or hesitated, which was a blessing when he tackled the late-19th century depression that hit the country as he resumed office.

Hardcover $31.00

Benjamin Harrison (American Presidents Series)

By Charles W. Calhoun Editor Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.

Benjamin Harrison, our 23rd president, is hardly the most exciting man to hold the position. The common wisdom is that he was neither incompetent nor exceptional. Calhoun, however, manages to make his biography of Harrison interesting by arguing that Harrison is actually responsible for setting in motion the evolution of modern presidency—that he was actually the first activist president, and his busy administration was a key moment of evolution from the less powerful and more isolated 19th century-style presidents into the modern conception of the office. That Calhoun is very convincing in this argument makes this a necessary read for any presidential scholar.

eBook $54.99

William McKinley and His America: Second Edition

By H. Wayne Morgan

McKinley is an important president regardless of his achievements simply because his election represented a shift from the post-Civil War political landscape to the Progressive Era. Even so, McKinley’s administration is generally well regarded, and Morgan manages to sketch out the personality of a man whose portraits convey exactly zero of his inner life. Morgan finds a perfect balance between the context of McKinley’s presidency and the life story of a man who was the last president to have served in the Civil War and our second president to be assassinated while in office.

Hardcover $120.00

Theodore Roosevelt Trilogy Bundle: The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt / Theodore Rex / and Colonel Roosevelt

By Edmund Morris

Theodore Roosevelt is one of the most famous presidents of all time, and everyone is probably familiar with the high points of his story—his frail, sickly youth, his aggressively physical adulthood, his adventures with the Rough Riders, etc. Roosevelt wasn’t just famous for his personality, though; he’s easily one of the most effective and influential presidents to have ever served, and Morris’ Pulitzer Prize-winning three-volume set is the appropriately deep dive into Roosevelt’s life and political career that you need to read in order to understand not just Roosevelt’s incredible influence on America but the life that shaped him as a man and a politician.

William Howard Taft: The American Presidents Series: The 27th President, 1909-1913

By Jeffrey Rosen Editor Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. , Sean Wilentz

The main thing people remember about Taft, our 27th President, is that he was so fat he once got stuck in a tub in the White House—which is a shame since the story is fake news. Taft remains the only person to ever be president and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, which makes him one of the most interesting historical figures of all time even if his administration usually gets middling marks, and Rosen’s brisk biography does a great job of humanizing the man while reminding us of his very real achievements.

eBook $9.99

Woodrow Wilson

By John Milton Cooper Jr.

Theodore Roosevelt returned to run for a third term as president in 1912, running against Woodrow Wilson, and Cooper’s unusual biographical approach is to treat them both as equally important to the question of who was Woodrow Wilson, the president who tried to keep the U.S. out of World War I and then guided the country through it. The war overshadowed Wilson’s progressive legislative achievements, which were substantial—and Cooper makes a sound argument that Wilson’s policies weren’t that different from what a 3rd Roosevelt term might have looked like.

Warren G. Harding (American Presidents Series)

By John W. Dean Editor Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.

Harding is a frequent candidate for the worst president of all time, a man whose administration was plagued by scandal and whose policies set the country on a downward spiral. Dean—infamous due to his connection to Watergate—is a Harding apologist, but that’s what makes his biography the best one to read. Most other Harding bios are either clearly critical of our 29th president or weakly defensive; Dean is full-throated in his defense. Where he fails to convince is where Harding truly failed as president, and where Dean makes you think is where Harding has, perhaps, received unfair treatment.

By Amity Shlaes

Shlaes, a former editor at The Wall Street Journal , is the ideal biographer of Calvin Coolidge, who served as our 30th president during the Roaring Twenties and exited, stage left, pursued by the Great Depression. Shlaes has the economic understanding to offer up a wholehearted defense of a president who generally inspires very little excitement in the modern reader, arguing that Coolidge’s smart economic policies kept the plates spinning much longer than might have otherwise been the case, elevating Coolidge’s reputation several pegs as a result.

Hardcover $35.99

Herbert Hoover (American Presidents Series)

By William E. Leuchtenburg Editor Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. , Sean Wilentz

Herbert Hoover is a prime example of the fallacy of prior results: he was a talented, intelligent man who would have made a great president had the economy not utterly collapsed from under him, the result of economic principles no one at the time entirely understood. Hoover’s paralyzed response to the incredible crisis of the Great Depression leaves him at the bottom of most lists of presidents—and deservedly so—but Leuchtenburg’s short, dense biography reminds us that Hoover had plenty of achievement in his life, and deserves a better reputation overall that he enjoys.

Paperback $26.00

By Jean Edward Smith

One of our greatest presidents deserves one of the greatest biographies ever written, and Smith comes through with his epic, well-written, and impeccably researched 2007 book. Smith offers a panoramic view of FDR, a man born into wealth and affluence who wound up a champion of the middle class and poor, a president whose efforts to guide the country out of the Depression were failures until World War II came along—and yet a man who is still routinely included in the top five presidents of all time.

Paperback $24.99

The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World

By A. J. Baime

Baime’s biography finally gives Truman the attention he deserves. As the title implies, Truman is still regarded by many as an “accidental” president who was a safe, boring choice for the vice presidency and who was never supposed to be president himself. And yet Truman was a better chief executive than many realize—if for no other reason than the way he navigated the first four months of his first term, stepping into FDR’s oversize shoes and somehow keeping everything on track despite never having been taken into FDR’s confidence when the man was alive.

Paperback $28.00

Eisenhower in War and Peace

Eisenhower is often associated with complacency, with the 1950s post-war haze. Smith argues forcibly—and successfully—that Eisenhower was a dynamic and effective president who oversaw the country’s transition from war to peace, from the past to the present, from hot war to cold war. Smith’s focus on Eisenhower’s military career might seem at first a mistake, but the fact is Ike’s presidency was an extension of his military career despite his clear understanding of the necessary division between the military and the civilian government.

An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917 – 1963

By Robert Dallek

Kennedy has long been more legend than human being, and Dallek works hard to carve away the mythology to get at the person behind the famous images and the politician behind the desk. His focus on Kennedy’s early life and medical issues, plus his ability to dig up new original sources concerning Kennedy’s affairs and indiscretions, is coupled with a sober assessment of Kennedy as president, resulting in a nearly-perfect biography of an imperfect president.

Paperback $25.00

Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 3

By Robert A. Caro

Lyndon Johnson was a masterful politician, a consummate wheeler-dealer, and a ruthless part boss who surprised everyone by pursuing ambitious policies once he found himself in office. He was also a flawed man who allowed the Vietnam War to completely consume his presidency before his work was done. Caro’s incredible book series about John is huge—but as you read you come to realize it could probably be twice as long, so packed with achievement was Johnson’s career both pre- and post-presidency.

Hardcover $36.95

Richard Nixon: California's Native Son

By Paul Carter Foreword by Tricia Nixon Cox

The only U.S. President from California, Nixon’s biographies often miss that he was more than just a president. A son, father, brother, friend, husband, and unable, Nixon’s legacy is more than just Watergate. This biography shines a spotlight on the qualities, people, places, and experiences that shaped Richard Nixon and led to his success.

Gerald R. Ford (American Presidents Series)

By Douglas Brinkley Editor Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.

Ford is usually regarded as the most accidental of the accidental presidents—a man who was appointed Vice President when Spiro Agnew resigned who then became president when Nixon resigned, and who then lost his bid for proper election in 1976, having served less than three years in the office. Brinkley doesn’t exactly make a case for Ford, under-appreciated genius, but he does make Ford’s career seem less haphazard in retrospect, noting his close relationship with Nixon that made his status as heir-apparent clear and the vicious political battle Ford fought against the surprise candidacy of Ronald Reagan at the convention in 1976—a battle Ford won.

The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter

By Kai Bird

This modern biography of the 39 th president delves into Jimmy Carter’s legacy taking readers inside the Oval Office.  Diving into Carter’s accomplishments as well as failures, Bird points out how such issues as healthcare and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, that are still very much relevant today, consumed the president during his single term in office. The Outlier is the definitive Jimmy Carter biography that we’ve been waiting for.

Paperback $27.00

Reagan: The Life

By H. W. Brands

Reagan remains a divisive figure in the increasingly polarized political climate of the U.S., and past biographers have found him to be an opaque figure—a man so used to being on camera and under scrutiny that his true self was difficult to pinpoint. Brands manages to cut through partisan sniping and understands that Reagan was his contradictions—and his contradictions (a conservative firebrand open to compromise, a president who talked tough but pursued careful policies) were what made him successful.

Paperback $20.00

Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush

Meacham’s glorious biography of the elder Bush is an inspiring story of a man of wealth and power who sought to serve his country instead of simply enjoying his position in society. Bush was a capable chief executive in the shadow of a colossus named Reagan, a man who lacked personal charisma forced to run against a man who was more or less made entirely of charisma. Meacham’s sober finds in Bush senior a very good man who always did his best, and who did in fact achieve quite a bit while in office.

Paperback $29.99

First In His Class: A Biography Of Bill Clinton

By David Maraniss

Although this biography was written while Clinton was still serving his first term as president, it remains a must-read. Maraniss manages to get to the heart of Clinton’s success in this book, showing him to be a man less of natural talent and more of untiring, indefatigable ambition—ambition he applied to serving his country. Whatever your opinion of Clinton the man, you can’t deny he was one of the best politicians of the late 20th century, and this book gets down to why that was the case in readable, entertaining prose.

While Smith is not shy about criticizing Bush in this fantastic biography—even ending with an open question regarding Bush Jr.’s status as Worst President Ever (although who knows, that slot may be filled by a new name soon enough)—there is plenty of acknowledgment that Bush sometimes did the right thing, and sometimes showed a canny talent for the job he won twice. The fact that the Bush you meet in this book is very similar to the Bush you saw on TV for eight years is actually to the man’ credit.

Paperback $40.00

Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama

By David Garrow

Obama is polarizing—those who hate him really hate him, and those who love him tend to adore him. This means that Obama’s own autobiographies are regarded as either works of genius or self-serving myth-making. Garrow’s biography is energetic and finds the truth in-between—Obama’s own writing, it contends, is certainly shaped by Obama’s political ambitions to present our 44th president in a certain way—but this is far from an anti-Obama screed. It is, in fact, perhaps the first truly objective look at Obama’s life and administration. If you want more of a personal perspective of Obama’s administration and his time at the office, pick up a copy of A Promised Land , the newest memoir by the man himself.

Trump Revealed: The Definitive Biography of the 45th President

By Michael Kranish , Marc Fisher

If you want to understand how Donald Trump became president (and whether you regard this as a miracle or a disaster), Kranish offers up perhaps the first serious attempt to understand Trump’s life. That doesn’t mean he’s not critical of Trump—and often. But it does sidestep some of the overheated rhetoric that the never-Trumpers engage in and the lavish praise the god-emperor faction offer up, making it a compelling and informative read.

• BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

The Best Presidential Biographies For History Buffs

Dig into 46 top-notch biographies—one for each American president.

• Photo Credit: Wikipedia

The office of the American presidency is one of the most storied in history, equaling that of older monarchies in both richness and scope. For nearly 250 years, the residents of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue have inspired admiration, provoked outrage—and everything in between—both at home and abroad.

In light of the current political climate, we're interested in our nation's leaders more than ever. In these uncertain times, perhaps the best way to understand our future is to first understand our past—and how we got here. Whether you're a history buff or simply a curious reader, you can find valuable insight in the best presidential biographies. With their comprehensiveness and readability, they'll be the literary torchlights for your journey through history.

Related: The Best Biographies and Memoirs for Every Kind of Reader  

1) George Washington

By James Thomas Flexner

Flexner’s award-winning multivolume series humanizes a man who has reached almost mythic status in the American psyche. His nimble and dramatic prose paints a complex portrait of a novice who set the standard, a conflicted man of unshakeable purpose, who made his mark in history as few ever have.

2) John Adams

By David McCullough

McCullough has made a name for himself as an epic chronicler of great lives, and he lives up to his reputation in this magisterial biography of Adams, the Founding Father who could never quite escape the shadow of the man who preceded him. From his surprising role in the Boston Massacre to inaugurating the vice presidency, America’s second president had a first row seat to its birth and trial by fire, here told by McCullough with all the depth and sweep befitting.

3) Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power

By Jon Meacham

Remembered as much for his philosophy as his politics, Jefferson is a fitting subject for the cerebrally-minded Meacham, who here weaves the story of a complicated polymath who Declared Independence and Purchased Louisiana, shaping his country in ways literal and figurative.

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4) James Madison

James Madison: A Life Reconsidered

By Lynne Cheney

The wife of former wartime VP Dick Cheney, Lynne observes the life of the first wartime president of what was now officially the United States of America. Briskly-paced and heavily researched, the author nimbly guides readers through Madison’s tumults and triumphs, from authoring the Constitution to seeing the White House burned down.

5) James Monroe

The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation’s Call to Greatness

By Harlow Giles Unger

As Monroe shepherded the United States through a period where it began to assert itself as a regional power, Unger shepherds his audience through this riveting account of a transitional phase in American history and the key founding figure who charted its new course.

6) John Quincy Adams

John Quincy Adams: American Visionary,

The son of John and Abigail Adams, John Quincy Adams’ presidency might be of particular interest given our most recent election, as he was both America’s first Commander-in-Chief to run as part of a familial dynasty, and its first to win an election despite losing the popular vote. In this illuminating biography, Fred Kaplan reevaluates the life of this son of American royalty, making a case for why he was a more consequential president than often given credit for.

7) Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times

By H.W. Brands

Praised and reviled, but never ignored, Jackson was an American original, and Brands does him due service in this meticulously researched recounting of his life. From an orphanage to the Oval Office, from his battles with bankers to the Trail of Tears, Jackson and his outsized persona of a “tough guy” fighting on behalf of the common man against a “corrupt establishment” are as relevant today as they have ever been.

8) Martin Van Buren

Martin Van Buren

By Ted Widmer

An early sign of Americans’ tendency to follow up two-term presidents with their opposites, Martin Van Buren was everything Andrew Jackson was not: polished, deliberate, multilingual and politically groomed. Clinton White House veteran Ted Widmer is an appropriate choice to look back on the life and career of this most accomplished of figures, who nonetheless found himself under siege from all sides once he reached the peak.

9) William Henry Harrison

Old Tippecanoe: William Henry Harrison and His Time

By Freeman Cleaves

America’s shortest-serving president had a nonetheless fascinating life, done justice here by Freeman Cleaves. Running apolitically on his credentials as a war hero, Harrison helped set the modern template for a personally popular “non-ideological” figure to campaign for high office as a “problem solver.” His untimely death only a month into his term has rendered him somewhat of an enigma among presidents, and Cleaves explores this fertile ground with a historian’s eye and a writer’s flourish.

10) John Tyler

By Gary May

Dubbed “His Accidency” by his detractors in Congress, then-Vice President John Tyler became the first American to assume the presidency without ever being elected to that office, quickly seizing power amidst constitutional uncertainty. Noted secret government historian Gary May plumbs the depths of history to detail the hushed negotiations and go-it-alone diplomacy of this renegade president who circumvented congress in an effort to bring Texas into the Union.

11) James K. Polk

Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America

By Walter R. Borneman

Few presidents have seen their political careers careen from low to high as often as Polk, who went from Speaker of the House to a twice-defeated gubernatorial candidate before ending up in the highest office in the land. Not often remembered in accordance with his impact, Borneman leaves no stone unturned in this revealing portrait of a man whose work culminated in sweeping victory in the Mexican-American War.

12) Zachary Taylor

Zachary Taylor: Soldier, Planter, Statesman of the Old Southwest

By K. Jack Bauer

Bauer delves deep into the mind of the enigmatic 12th president, who could confound those around him with positions that defied his origins. An anti-slavery southerner who nonetheless himself held slaves, Taylor vied to use the force of his war hero status to hold the Union together in a time of impending civil war, only be to felled by disease in the second year of his presidency.

13) Millard Fillmore

Millard Fillmore: Biography of a President

By Robert J. Rayback

Fillmore was the last president to come out of the Whig Party, which, while having long since faded into history, was a major force in American politics for decades. Rayback deftly weaves together the life of President Fillmore, the party’s last contribution to America’s highest office, with the looming theme of political upheaval that gripped the country in the years before the Civil War.

14) Franklin Pierce

Franklin Pierce: New Hampshire’s Favorite Son and Franklin Pierce: Martyr for the Union

By Peter A. Wallner

Even the worst of presidents can make for fascinating subject matter, and Pierce is frequently ranked near the bottom by presidential historians. In his two-volume biography Peter Wallner gamely makes an effort to rehabilitate his subject’s military career from longtime charges of cowardice, and he starkly illuminates the political circumstances and personal failures that Pierce struggled with as the nation drifted ever-further toward a rupture point.

15) James Buchanan

President James Buchanan: A Biography

By Philip S. Klein

Another poorly-ranked president is given his day in Philip Klein’s account of backroom dealings and proverbial smoke-filled rooms as he illustrates that Buchanan’s “political animal” nature blinded him to the necessity of turning down the heat in a culture war that was rapidly reaching a boil. Supporting the expansion of slave territory and the infamous Dredd Scott decision because he believed they helped his political brand, Buchanan’s quest for personal glory in his single term would visit fateful consequences upon his nation for decades to come.

16) Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln Reconsidered

By David Herbert Donald

From humble beginnings to Mount Rushmore, few lives are as quintessentially American as that of the 16th president. Amongst the countless books on Lincoln’s life, Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Herbert Donald’s stands out for its sheer sweep – this is at once a grand historical epic and a personal tale of inspiration and tragedy. Readers will come away with an appreciation not just for Lincoln’s wartime leadership but for the struggles he endured at home, even as the very idea of the United States itself hung in the balance.

RELATED: 10 Civil War Books That Inform and Entertain  

17) Andrew Johnson

Andrew Johnson

By Hans L. Trefousse

It is no coincidence that some of the worst-remembered presidents are those who immediately preceded and followed Honest Abe; standing next to a giant, anyone could look small. But Johnson holds the distinction of being one of only two American presidents to ever be impeached, andstep-by-step, Hans Trefousse lays out how the out-of-his-element Johnson was both overridden by Congress and overwhelmed by the job.

18) Ulysses S. Grant

Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant

By Ulysses Grant

A military memoir is a proper vehicle for a figure revered less for his presidency and more for his battlefield heroics. With this account of his time in the Mexican-American War and his successful leadership of the Union Army to victory in the Civil War, Grant shows himself to be a compelling writer in his own right. Crisp and to-the-point prose offers an inside look at battle strategy like few other sources, and Grant’s personal insights into each wars’ merits make for an intriguing read.

RELATED: True Stories About America's Military Heroes  

19) Rutherford B. Hayes

Rutherford B. Hayes: Warrior and President

By Ari Hoogenboom

Hayes reasserted presidential power after Congress had taken charge during the two prior presidencies, and for this Ari Hoogenboom makes his case to reassert Hayes’ position in the presidential canon. Though often seen as ineffectual, Hoogenboom recontextualizes his subject’s accomplishments in light of how far the powers of the presidency had fallen, and compellingly relates Hayes’ personal push for progressive policies on a host of issues from public education to prison reform.

20) James A. Garfield

Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President

By Candice Millard

The title of this account of Garfield’s life conjures images of plot and intrigue in the mind of the reader. So it should, for Candice Millard has written a biography that often reads like a thriller, breathless as it is in retelling the story of a man who rose from poverty to prominence, only to be felled by an assassin’s bullet less than a year after his election. But the bullet itself is only part of the plot–Millard then leads us through a whirlwind of experimental treatments and medical malpractice, as the last days of the president’s life play out like an episode of ER.

21) Chester A. Arthur

Gentleman Boss: The Life of Chester Alan Arthur

By Thomas C. Reeves

Arthur’s presidency was memorable for its quiet confidence, and Arthur himself for vastly surpassing expectations. Thomas Reeves charts the court of a man of limited ambition who was suddenly thrust into power and had to sink or swim. Under his steady leadership the United States suffered no major crises, and upon his retirement he was lauded in a bipartisan way that is almost impossible to imagine today.

22) Grover Cleveland

The Forgotten Conservative: Rediscovering Grover Cleveland

By John Pafford

Most famous for being the only president to be elected on non-consecutive occasions, John Pafford’s work reminds us that Grover Cleveland was much more than a historical anomaly. Cleveland felt a strong calling to “try to do right,” and in his first term he took on political corruption and nepotism in a way many would say is sorely needed in modern America.

23) Benjamin Harrison

Benjamin Harrison

By Charles W. Calhoun

Interrupting the presidencies of the popular Grover Cleveland (who actually defeated him in the popular vote), Benjamin Harrison was a political savant. Calhoun skillfully lays out how this grandson of America’s 9th president played the system like a fiddle, ousting the more popular Cleveland in an electoral college landslide, and then worked with congress to accomplish much in their limited time with Republican control, including passing the crucial Sherman Antitrust Act that established the baseline with which we break-up monopolies to this day.

24) Grover Cleveland

An Honest President: The Life and Times of Grover Cleveland

By H.P. Jeffers

Everything old was new again as Grover Cleveland reassumed the presidency after a four year absence. He picked up where he left off in his crusade for justice and honesty in political life, and it is this quality of integrity that H.P. Jeffers returns to again and again in this biography, which takes the more personal path of examining how Cleveland’s character shaped his presidency.

25) William McKinley

The President and the Assassin: McKinley, Terror, and Empire at the Dawn of the American Century

By Scott Miller

Miller’s expansive account of the 25th president’s life reads almost like a romance-era thriller. McKinley is both a swashbuckling figure, instigating and achieving sweeping victory for America in the Spanish American War, and a tragic one, cut down shortly after winning reelection. Miller weaves into this epic the story of his assassin, Leon Czolgosz, a large figure in his own right in anarchist history.

26) Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt Series

By Edmund Morris

Selected in its entirety by the Modern Library as one of the Best 100 Nonfiction Books of All Time, Morris’ three-volume look at “Teddy’s” life is, like its subject, the stuff of legend. Combining the accuracy of a historical detective with the literary verve of a master dramatist, Morris cruises through the extraordinary life of this politician, progressive, adventurer, explorer and, of course, president.

27) William Howard Taft

The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism

By Doris Kearns Goodwin

In the crowded field of presidential historians, Doris Kearns Goodwin is in a category all her own. Here she sets her subject’s presidency on not just his own terms, but as part of a titanic battle for the very soul of America, as Taft wages a brutal political war against his one-time friend Theodore Roosevelt. At issue was the widening wealth gap, corporate resistance to regulation, and a muckraking press. Readers need not be forgiven for seeing resemblances to their own time.

28) Woodrow Wilson

By A. Scott Berg

For this comprehensive look at one of the most consequential presidents America has ever seen, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Berg was the first to gain access to many primary source documents related to Wilson’s life. Those documents help Berg take readers on a breathless ride through the birth of America as an international power, as Wilson guides the nation through the pivotal role it played in what was a war unlike any seen in human history to that point in time.

29) Warren G. Harding

Warren G. Harding

By John W. Dean and Arthur M. Schlesinger

This unique writing pair (Schlesinger a revered historian and public intellectual, Dean an infamous figure from the Watergate-era Nixon White House) combine to offer a clear and concise look at the breakdown of a president’s public image. Popular upon his death, Warren Harding’s reputation took a posthumous plummet when the tawdry details of both his political and private activities became public. Few know about such things at the presidential level as well as Dean.

30) Calvin Coolidge

By Amity Shlaes

Shlaes gives us an even-handed look at the controversial Coolidge. Viewed by some as an upstanding champion of up-by-your-bootstraps Americanism, and by others as a cold-hearted worshipper of capital; whichever side of the debate you may fall on (or if this is your first forage into it) Coolidge remains an intriguing figure, as Shlaes’ New York Times bestseller here proves.

31) Herbert Hoover

Herbert Hoover in the White House: The Ordeal of the Presidency

By Charles Rappleye

A successful businessman who presided over the worst economic crisis in American history, Hoover is somewhat of an enigma. Charles Rappleye gamely dives into the life and mind of this complicated figure, who was both ambitious and timid, personally optimistic and publicly dour, and dismissed as “CEO” by American shareholders after only a single term.

32) Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox

By James MacGregor Burns

An epic presidency (Roosevelt remains the only man ever elected to the office more than twice; he won it four times) gets the epic treatment it deserves from James MacGregor Burns in this Pulitzer Prize-winning two-volume biography. 

From his beginnings on the New York political scene to his becoming the most consequential figure on earth during World War II, Burns paints an endlessly captivating portrait of Roosevelt the intellectual, inspirer, warrior and even humorist.

Related: 10 Thought-Provoking Books About Leadership

33) Harry S. Truman

A man as underestimated as perhaps any in American history, “Give ‘em Hell” Harry today gets his due from one of the foremost historians of our time. McCullough thrills his readers with all the trials and tribulations of a bookish man who found himself at the heart of so many epochal events it boggles the mind. The end of World War II, the decision to use the atomic bomb, McCarthyism, the Korean War – McCullough conducts this concert of history with the expertise of a true maestro.

34) Dwight D. Eisenhower

Eisenhower: A Life

By Paul Johnson

“I like Ike” was Dwight Eisenhower’s election slogan, and it remains an apt one for a president who has remained popular in the public mind over a half century after leaving office. In this succinct biography Paul Johnson hits all the major beats of Ike’s life, from his modest Kansas upbringing to the shores of Normandy Beach, all the way up to the gates of the White House itself.

35) John F. Kennedy

John Kennedy

First published before his election to the presidency, James MacGregor Burns’ biography of the ‘up and coming’ congressman from Massachusetts gets its spot on this list because of the uniquely personal relation of the author to his subject. Burns and Kennedy were close friends, and the president-to-be granted him unprecedented interviews and access to both himself and the entire Kennedy clan. JFK was and remains a celebritized figure in our national consciousness, and so it is worthy to look at the more personal side of him revealed to Burns here.

36) Lyndon Baines Johnson

Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream

Goodwin makes a return to this list to chronicle the peaks and valleys of LBJ, to whom she was both a confidante and White House employee. She mines this relationship to offer frank insights into and eyewitness play-by-play of the life of a man whose domestic achievements of Medicare and the Civil/Votings Rights Acts were ultimately overshadowed by his failure in the Vietnam War, resulting in the almost unfathomable fall from winning one of the greatest landslide victories in presidential history to being drummed out of his own party’s primary race just four years later.

Being Nixon: A Man Divided

By Evan Thomas

This was the age of upheaval, and the political career of Richard Nixon waxed and waned with the times in true rollercoaster fashion. Thomas expertly guides us through Nixon’s early triumphs as Ike’s vice president through his nail-biting loss to JFK, from the misery of his defeat in a California gubernatorial bid to his shocking comeback to the presidency and landslide reelection, and finally, of course, to the most infamous moment of this remarkable life, as he becomes the first, and only president to ever resign from office.

RELATED: 8 Revealing Books About Richard Nixon and the Watergate Scandal  

38) Gerald R. Ford

Gerald R. Ford: An Honorable Life

By James Cannon and Scott Cannon

The stunning series of events that led Gerald Ford’s elevation to the presidency (the resignations of Vice President Agnew and then President Nixon) sets the stage for the Cannons’ attempt to rehabilitate the image of an “accidental president” often mocked for being in over his head. The authors make a compelling case that the humble and honest Ford was exactly the figure America needed to follow the deception and corruption of the Nixon years, even if Americans did not at the time realize it.

39) James Earl Carter

The Unfinished Presidency: Jimmy Carter’s Journey Beyond the White House

By Douglas Brinkley

Renowned historian Douglas Brinkley gives a unique take on a unique figure. While most anyone would consider the American presidency the pinnacle of personal achievement, Brinkley makes the case that for Jimmy Carter the highest office in his country was but a stepping stone to his later work on behalf of causes and peoples all over the world. Utilizing the relationships he’d built in office allowed Carter to travel the world as a statesman and humanitarian in his long post-presidential life, advocating with faithful zeal on behalf of the many disenfranchised.

40) Ronald Wilson Reagan

Reagan: The Life

In both life and death Ronald Reagan was as much an avatar of his political movement as perhaps any president; to this day Republican presidential candidates go out of their way to compare themselves to “The Gipper” in all ways possible. Revered by many for his infectious optimism and Cold War warrior’s zeal, reviled by others for his administration’s multiple scandals and controversial economic practices, the actor-turned-president was a true American original, and Brands’ expansive account of his life will give interested readers all they could hope for.

RELATED: Step Inside the White House With These Entertaining Reads  

41) George H.W. Bush

Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush

For the man who presided over the fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of the Cold War, and in the sands of Iraq, the first President Bush is today considered by many to be a historical footnote. Jon Meacham here makes the forceful case for a reevaluation of that conventional wisdom, as he draws on Bush’s personal diaries to paint a picture of a cerebral man who guided the nation through tumultuous times according to what he thought best for the country, even as it took its toll on his personal popularity.

42) William Jefferson Clinton

The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House

By John F. Harris

An apt title for the young man who found himself perpetually under siege from the day his presidency began, Harris’ appraisal of Bill Clinton’s life continually returns to the theme of survival. From losing the Arkansas governor’s mansion only to return, from his disastrous national debut at the 1988 DNC to his triumphant ascent to the presidency, from the ignominy of impeachment to leaving office with the highest approval ratings on record, Harris’ work offers an up close and personal view of a man who has inspired, frustrated and beguiled on his way to becoming one of the foremost figures of the modern era.

43) George W. Bush

Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House

By Peter Baker

Baker’s choice to feature Dick Cheney so prominently in both his title and his book on the years of “Dubya” is a fitting one, for few presidents have been so inextricably tied to their junior partners. However, Baker goes far beyond the simple explanation of Bush as Cheney’s puppet; rather, through hundreds of interviews and previously unreleased memos, he arrests our attention with the story of a friendship gone awry, from the president’s admiration of Cheney’s hard-nosed tactics that helped him eke out the closest election in American history to his disgust in their final years as one of the most disliked White House tandems the country has ever seen.

44) Barack Obama

The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama

By David Remnick

Any biography of the nation’s first African American president must address not only the life of its endlessly fascinating subject, but perform on-the-fly contextualization of the historical significance of something so fresh in our minds. Remnick clearly relishes the challenge, and his bestselling account of Obama’s life and task dovetails beautifully with an exploration of how America’s disgraceful past on the issue of race explosively gave way to its crowning achievement.

Related: The Barack Obama Reading List  

45) Donald Trump

TrumpNation

By Timothy L. O'Brien

How prescient O’Brien’s title was, as we found ourselves at this strange point in history where it was indeed Donald Trump’s America. True to form, after granting the author dozens of hours of interviews and traveling privileges, Trump then turned around and unsuccessfully sued O’Brien, claiming the author misrepresented his wealth as smaller than it “bigly” was. (Years later, Trump's leaked tax reforms would vindicate O'Brien's depiction of Trump's finances.) 

Likewise true to form, the president himself makes perhaps the best case for reading O’Brien’s book: he doesn’t want you to read it.

46) Joseph Biden

Joe Biden: The Life, the Run, and What Matters Now

By Evan Osnos

National Book Award-winner Evan Osnos published this biography of President Joe Biden less than a week before Election Day 2020. At just 193 pages, the biography is surprisingly concise. But by blending interviews with both Biden and contemporary figures who know him best, including Barack Obama, Amy Klobuchar, and Pete Buttigieg, Osnos paints a picture of what the Biden presidency might look like—and why he may be exactly who this country needs right now.

Related: What Are Joe Biden's Favorite Books?

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Reading the Best Biographies of All Time

U.S. Presidents

Here is the roadmap for my journey through the best presidential biographies (for more detail see my site: www.bestpresidentialbios.com) .

Ratings are on a scale of 0 to 5 stars, with equal weight given to my subjective assessment of: (1) how enjoyable the biography was to read and (2) the biography’s historical value (including its comprehensive coverage and critical analysis of its subject).

Blue titles indicate Pulitzer Prize WINNERS. Blue italicized titles indicate Pulitzer Prize finalists.

This list was most recently updated October 9, 2016. If I’m missing a great presidential biography that you’ve read, please let me know!

Every book I review has been purchased by me. Bestpresidentialbios.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

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The 10 Best Presidential Biographies That Celebrate America's Political History

From the Founding Fathers to Barack Obama's journey to the White House.

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Most of us have a working knowledge of American history , but the best presidential biographies offer us the chance to expand our comprehension. Since George Washington became the first-ever president in 1789, the presidency has been a much-coveted role that only a handful of Americans have held. Unsurprisingly, many biographies exist regarding the most famous presidents of the United States, exploring everything from their contrasting upbringings to the trials and tribulations faced while in office.

From examinations of tense presidential runs to the politicians unexpectedly ascending to the highest office in the land, these presidential biographies offer unmitigated access to some of the world's most powerful individuals. These celebrated books explore topics such as crucial civil rights movements, the instigation of new laws, foreign policies, fierce opponents, huge success stories, and shocking scandals. Here, we round up 10 of the best presidential biographies you should add to your reading list right now.

Random House 'JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956' by Fredrik Logevall

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Fredrik Logevall attempts to uncover the secrets of John F. Kennedy's life, from his early years as a member of an esteemed Bostonian family to his election to the presidency. As well as examining some of Kennedy's most important political offerings, Logevall's book also seeks to understand the man behind the icon.

From the impact of World War II and the Cold War to the widespread influence the television had on a nation and its politics, this biography is a celebration of a popular man who was also somewhat of an enigma.

Random House 'American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant' by Ronald C. White Jr.

This award-winning biography of America's 18th president revisits the sometimes forgotten impact of Ulysses S. Grant during his tenure. Deeply researched over several years by author Ronald C. White Jr., American Ulysses explores the transformation of the former battlefield commander into a president who prioritized equal rights and challenged the federal government on numerous occasions.

From standing up to the Ku Klux Klan to changing governmental attitudes towards the indigenous people of the United States, Grant's service may get overlooked, but this book encourages readers to revisit his life in deserved detail.

Crown 'A Promised Land' by Barack Obama

As a successful author in his own right, former president Barack Obama continues to share his inimitable insight with readers. A Promised Land serves as the first volume of Obama's presidential memoirs, detailing the formation of his political beliefs as a young man through to the start of his historic presidency.

As the first Black president of the United States, Obama faced tough opposition alongside immense support, making his election a life-changing moment in history. Taking readers behind the scenes of his time at the White House, Promised Land is a fascinating firsthand account of taking on the role of POTUS.

Penguin Books 'Washington: A Life' by Ron Chernow

Ron Chernow's prize-winning biography of America's first president is a celebration of the accomplished politician, taking readers from George Washington's early life through to his presidency. A plethora of historic moments punctuate Washington's tenure, such as the creation of Mount Vernon and the hosting of the Constitutional Convention.

Washington's important rise to power, along with his close relationships with fellow politicians Alexander Hamilton , John Adams , and Thomas Jefferson , all contributed to his momentous presidency, which Chernow explores in depth.

Simon & Schuster 'Lincoln' by David Herbert Donald

Historian David Herbert Donald holds two Pulitzer Prizes for his writing, making his biography of 16th President Abraham Lincoln a must-read. Presiding over a country polarized by the Civil War, Lincoln's impactful tenure included the abolition of slavery.

However, Donald doesn't gloss over Lincoln's negative attributes, challenging the president's sometimes outdated and offensive views while establishing the politician's lasting legacy in the United States. While many biographies about Lincoln exist, Donald's tome is often cited as the best.

Vintage 'Richard Nixon: The Life' by John A. Farrell

This best-selling biography explores the unbelievable sway Richard Nixon had on the nation after becoming president in 1969. Rather than glossing over any of Nixon's less favorable moments, biographer John A. Farrell explains why the politician made the decisions he did and how he finally ascended to power.

From prolonging wars to creating a Communism scare campaign, Nixon's legacy is complicated, ending with the Watergate scandal and his eventual resignation. Farrell's book takes readers on a journey to understand how the United States changed forever under Nixon.

Mariner Books 'The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World' by A. J. Baime

Following the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman became the president of the United Status in 1945. As a result, Truman oversaw a tumultuous time in American history, which included the end of World War II, the inception of NATO, and the creation of the Truman Doctrine , opposing authoritarian regimes around the world.

A. J. Baime's book traverses the early days of Truman's presidency, revealing how a normal man from small-town America ended up holding the most important role in office.

Harper Perennial 'Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime' by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin

John Heilemann and Mark Halperin's Game Change takes riders on a rollercoaster ride through the 2008 election, which saw Barack Obama triumph over Hillary Clinton , John McCain , and Sarah Palin . After defeating Clinton in the Democratic primaries, Obama went all the way to the White House despite facing fierce opposition from McCain and his unlikely partner Palin.

The book is both a celebration of Obama's unexpected rise to greatness and an examination of a highly publicized political era that dominated the news cycle.

Simon & Schuster 'John Adams' by David McCullough

David McCullough's celebrated biography of John Adams served as the basis for HBO's miniseries about the founding father, starring Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney. The book tracks Adams' incredible rise to power, from his impressive Harvard education to his run as vice president before he took on the mantle as America's second president.

This volume encompasses moments from all of Adams' life, including his enviable marriage to Abigail Adams to the important decisions he made as the leader of the United States.

Random House 'Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power' by Jon Meacham

Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Jon Meacham gives readers a glimpse of the real Thomas Jefferson , who was both an amazing politician and a lover of architecture, gardening, and science. Using unpublished transcripts and archival records from the United States and beyond, Meacham builds a captivating portrait of the popular president.

While tracking Jefferson's impact on the economy and his handling of external threats, Meacham's book is a celebration of the president's life, which changed the course of American history.

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Years ago my colleague, Michael Waldron , and I decided to read at least one biography of every U.S. president. We started before we met and made mostly independent choices on which books to read. We finally got through all the Presidents and compared notes to create a best presidential biographies reading list. If we read different books, I start with Michael’s notes, then mine, and give you our verdict.

George Washington

MW: Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow . I enjoyed the biography. I’m confident Chernow does his research and produces a comprehensive work.

SA: Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Thomas Flexner. A single volume distillation of Flexner’s definitive four-volume biography provides a dated but then definitive overview of Washington. I liked it. When Chernow’s book came out, I ended up reading it too.

Verdict: Chernow’s book. More recent and detailed.

John Adams by David McCullough. A great storyteller bringing to life an important founding father and American family.

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meachem. A very good biography that we both enjoyed more than others we read about Jefferson.

MW also read Thomas Jefferson & the New Nation by Merrill Peterson. In his view, it’s a long and pedantic biography on a character who lived an extremely interesting life. I disliked Jefferson as a President and believe he’s significantly overrated. At the same point, I respect his real accomplishments and genius.

SA also read American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson and enjoyed it although not as much as Meachem’s book. Jefferson had one excellent term and one mediocre one, and while severely flawed had a major impact as a founding father.

James Madison

MW: The Fourth President: A Life of James Madison by Irving Brant. Brant wrote 6 volumes on Madison covering in detail his time during the American Revolution, the drafting of the Constitution, his time as Secretary of State and his presidency. The biography I read was one volume synthesizing the work that went into the 6 volumes. I enjoyed it. The author is definitely a few rungs below David McCullough, Ron Chernow, Jean Edward Smith, and Jon Meachem.

SA: James Madison by Ralph Ketcham. At the time I picked it, it was considered the best one volume biography of Madison’s life. It did a nice job covering Madison from all angles and it had more on his wife. I also read Lynn Cheney’s Madison: A Life Reconsidered. It was fine, not better than Ketcham’s.

Verdict: Ketcham’s book. Brant’s book is older and harder to find.

James Monroe

MW: James Monroe: The Quest for National Identity by Harry Ammon. A capable biography of the least brilliant of the first 5 presidents.

SA: The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation’s Call to Greatness by Harlow Unger. A very good biography of an early American hero. Well-written and chronicling an interesting man.

Verdict: Unger’s book. More recent and better reviewed.

John Quincy Adams

MW: John Quincy Adams A Public Life, A Private Life by Paul Nagel. I felt cheated with this biography. Nagel used JQA’s diaries as his main—almost exclusive—source, and focuses inward on JQA’s psychology rather than on the events of his time and his administration’s policies. I would try anything else that’s available on one of the most intellectually gifted presidents in our history.

SA: I also read this book and agree so the verdict is we can’t help you on this one except for the warning.

Andrew Jackson

MW: The Life of Andrew Jackson by Robert Remini. A fantastic condensed biography from Remini’s 3 volumes on Andrew Jackson. Remini is a brilliant writer on military strategy. The biography includes helpful maps. Jackson was a consequential president. His reputation is going through a period of decline, but I believe, taken in the context of his time, he was a strong leader who broadened our democracy. I also read American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meachem and enjoyed it thoroughly.

SA: American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meachem. An excellent Pulitzer Prize winning biography from one of our best writers on U.S. History.

Verdict: Sounds like you cannot go wrong with either book.

Martin Van Buren

Martin Van Buren: The Romantic Age of American Politics by John Niven. MW’s notes: There’s only so much you can do to make Van Buren interesting after the run from Washington through Jackson. Niven’s biography is thorough and well researched. I remember thinking about Van Buren: this is the first true professional politician to become President of the United States. It has interesting insight into New York State politics.

William Henry Harrison

Old Tippecanoe: William Henry Harrison and His Time by Freeman Cleaves. MW’s notes: I enjoyed learning about Harrison’s military career in the then-North West before his presidency. Harrison’s Vice President, John Tyler, was a small-federal-government (States’ rights) advocate who was part of Jefferson’s Anti-Federalists, but broke with his party over the personality of Andrew Jackson. Tyler was a ticket-balancing selection for WHH—which will happen again—that resulted in an accidental executive who was an obstruction to the elected party’s legislative agenda after WHH’s death.

MW: John Tyler: Champion of the Old South by Oliver Perry Chitwood. Tyler assumed the executive office and vetoed as much legislation as possible that came to his desk which aimed at expanding the reach of the federal government. I’m not sure there’s a better option covering this unremarkable president.

SA: John Tyler, the Accidental President by Edward Crapol. Strong focus on the fact that Tyler was the first Vice President to become president and shaped what that transition became since it was in doubt before him. Tyler was also the only traitor president since he sided with the Confederacy.

Verdict: We both liked our choices, but MW has more confidence in his pick so go with Chitwood if you want more depth and Crapol if you want a shorter version.

Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America by Walter Bornema. MW’s notes: A fairly easy read and one of my favorite lesser-known presidents. His agenda was very clear entering the presidency and he largely delivered on each major item he set out to accomplish.

Zachary Taylor

MW: Zachary Taylor: Soldier of the Republic by Holman Hamilton and Zachary Taylor: Soldier in the White House by Holman Hamilton—There wasn’t much choice here. Writing two volumes on Taylor seems unnecessary. Zachary Taylor was unfit for the presidency. His death was suspicious.

SA: Zachary Taylor: The American Presidents Series: The 12th President, 1849-1850 by David Eisenhower. This is where the American President Series came in quite handy. 192 pages instead of two volumes.

Verdict: Eisenhower’s book.

Millard Filmore

MW: Millard Fillmore: Biography of a President by Robert Rayback—The true Whig in the Taylor-Fillmore joint term, Fillmore helped pass the legislation that comprised the Compromise of 1850. He was more of a local New York politician than a true national figure or statesman.

SA: Millard Fillmore: The American Presidents Series: The 13th President, 1850-1853 by Paul Finkelman. Continuing my run with shorter books on unremarkable presidents. Didn’t think he deserved more than 171 pages.

Verdict: Rayback’s book. Well-rated and not that long, it’s worth a deeper dive given the place in history.

Franklin Pierce

MW: Franklin Pierce: Young Hickory of the Granite Hills by Roy Franklin Nichols. A biography to “get through.” Pierce’s three sons died young; the last to die passed away from a train accident. Pierce’s wife blamed his ambition for the office of President for his son’s death. At the same time, the country was in pre-Civil War unrest, especially in Kansas.

SA: Franklin Pierce: The American Presidents Series: The 14th President, 1853-1857 by Michael Holt. Still going strong with my shorter series.

Verdict: Holt’s book. Michael characterized his choice as something to get through. I didn’t feel like I missed anything with my choice.

James Buchanan

MW: President James Buchanan: A Biography by Philips Klein—A president who refused to take responsibility and use his office to hold the nation together. With Lincoln on the horizon, one can gut his or her way through this biography.

SA: James Buchanan: The American Presidents Series: The 15th President, 1857-1861 by Jean Baker. You guessed it. I went with the shorter version for this awful president. I think at this point I was in a rush to get to Lincoln.

Verdict: Baker’s book. 506 pages is too much to commit to Buchanan.

Abraham Lincoln

MW: Lincoln by David Herbert Donald—Solid biography of a character who makes the job easy.

SA: A. Lincoln: A Biography by Ronald C. White. Perhaps the best presidential biography I have read. One of history’s most fascinating people delivered in a great book.

Verdict: White’s book. I also read Donald’s and agree it’s very good. Both Michael and I also strongly recommend Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.

Andrew Johnson

Andrew Johnson: A Biography by Hans Trefousse. MW’s notes: I believe Lincoln chose Johnson for Vice President in his second term to make a constitutional argument that the States that seceded never actually left the United States (making ‘readmittance’ a non-issue). Johnson remained in the Senate from Tennessee and to be elected vice president one must be a “resident of the U.S.” His election would mean Tennessee was still a State in the United States. Unfortunately, in every other way, Johnson was a Southern Democrat. During a critical window where much could have been accomplished for Civil Rights, Johnson reverted back to his true ideological colors and stood for States’ rights. If Lincoln had lived, reconstruction would have started on a much different path. Johnson was one of the worst presidents who set the U.S. back a century on Civil Rights.

Ulysses Grant

MW: Grant by William S. McFeely—My worst choice of a biographer. There is a Grant biography by Jean Edward Smith who is a wonderful military historian and a new Grant biography by Ron Chernow. Go with Smith and/or Chernow for a proper treatment of U.S. Grant.

SA: The Man Who Saved the Union: Ulysses Grant in War and Peace by H.W. Brands and Grant by Ron Chernow.

Verdict: You can’t go wrong with either Smith/Brands/Chernow.

Rutherford Hayes

MW: Rutherford B. Hayes: Warrior and President by Ari Hoogenboom. I maintain that Hayes was not elected President of the United States. That aside, I generally liked Hayes and found the biography informative. The focus is civil service reform.

SA: Rutherford B. Hayes by Hans Trefousse. Another American President Series selection. These are good books, and I didn’t think I missed much going with a longer selection.

Verdict: It depends on how many pages you have the appetite for, 700 or 200.

James Garfield

MW: Garfield by Alan Peskin—I would have loved to see what Garfield could have accomplished over a full term (or two). His medical treatment after being shot makes you appreciate how far the medical industry has come in the past century and a half. His compromise vice president to the Stalwarts, Chester Arthur, is the least well qualified president since Taylor.

SA: Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard. This bestselling book goes beyond presidential biography and tells an amazing story about his assassination and treatment.

Verdict: Millard’s book.

Chester Arthur

Gentleman Boss: The Life of Chester Alan Arthur by Thomas Reeves. MW’s notes: Ranking low with Johnson and Buchanan, Chester Arthur was a dirty, clubby politician who should never have been president. He reminds me of Warren Harding, caring more about being part of the boys’ club than having a vision for the country and a deep caring for the people. At least when he succeeded to President, Arthur acted with dignity. His presidency was a pause in American history. He was suffering from Bright’s disease in office and didn’t have initiative for driving progress.

Grover Cleveland

Grover Cleveland A Study in Courage by Allan Nevins—Two volumes that one may split around Benjamin Harrison. A good gateway Democrat to win the presidency after the Civil War. His presidency deals with the gold standard vs. free silver, Eastern creditors vs. Western debtors (which is somewhat boring compared to other topics). Nevins is a solid historian.

Benjamin Harrison

MW: Benjamin Harrison: Hoosier President , Harry Sievers—Two volumes on Harrison is a lot. There aren’t many options. I don’t remember much other than Harrison being perceived as cold and a bad communicator.

SA: Benjamin Harrison: The American Presidents Series: The 23rd President, 1889-1893 by Charles Calhoun. With the lack of great options, I went with the shorter version and enjoyed the book.

Verdict: Calhoun’s book.

William McKinley

William McKinley and His America by H. Wayne Morgan. MW’s notes: A surprisingly good biography of a successful president. The Spanish-American war brought the country back together and was the first demonstration of the United States as an international major power. I thought I’d have to “get through” one more before it became interesting again with TR, but the turn out of the forgettable presidents came one president earlier than expected for me.

Note: this book is hard to find, so the American President Series choice is a solid option, as is The Triumph of William McKinley .

Theodore Roosevelt

We both read The Morris Trilogy which is The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris, Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris, and Colonel Roosevelt by Edmund Morris. TR is such a colorful character that the trilogy remains interesting throughout. Theodore Rex is the one to read if you just want to cover his presidential administration. Morris is a solid author.

I would also recommend T.R.: The Last Romantic by H.W. Brands. The writing is tighter, and the research is just as strong.

William Howard Taft

MW: The Life & Times of William Howard Taft , by Henry Pringle. Two volumes well worth reading. I thought Taft started great through his service in the Philippines and in Teddy Roosevelt’s administration. But I felt he remained behind the times and didn’t adapt to the new reality of America post-industrialization during his presidency and service on the Supreme Court.

SA: William Howard Taft: The American Presidents Series: The 27th President, 1909-1913 by Jeffrey Rosen. You get a lot about Taft in the Roosevelt books, and I didn’t want to read two more volumes after reading three on TR.

Verdict: Decide how much time you want to commit to Taft. We’re both happy with our choices.

Woodrow Wilson

MW: Woodrow Wilson: A Biography by August Heckscher. An excellent biography of one of my favorite presidents. Wilson’s reputation is similarly on the ebb, but I view him in an elite group of great presidents. His patience before entering WWI turned out to be the right decision for the country, allowing enough consensus to build to go into it with unity and prospering during the early war year while benefitting from ‘winning’ the war. He was a visionary, a wonderful communicator, and he had an exceptional understanding of the levers of power.

SA: Woodrow Wilson: A Biography by John Milton Cooper Jr. Another favorable look at Wilson, albeit a more more recent one and the first definitive biography on Wilson in a couple of decades. I don’t view him nearly as favorably as MW, but he was a transformational figure.

Verdict: Cooper’s more recent book.

Warren Harding

MW: The Shadow of Blooming Grove: Warren G. Harding in His Times , by Francis Russell. An angry author (about his lack of approval in using Harding’s papers) writing on a terrible president. Harding did an admirable job building his newspaper business as a young man, but then retired into the easy life, drinking, philandering, and enjoying a clubby political circle. His administration was filled with criminals who stole from the country while he continued his affairs in the White House and paid hush money the very young mistress of his illegitimate child.

SA: Warren G. Harding: The American Presidents Series: The 29th President, 1921-1923 by John Dean. Without great choices and a terrible president, I went with the shorter version.

Verdict: Dean’s book.

Calvin Coolidge

Coolidge by Amity Shlaes. MW’s notes: A solid biography on an under-appreciated president. Coolidge was an exceptional governor of Massachusetts during the police strike and an economically conservative president who brought the country’s fiscal situation to order. Meanwhile, he was reasonably progressive socially. I found the Coolidge administration refreshing.

Herbert Hoover

Hoover: An Extraordinary Life in Extraordinary Times by Kenneth Whyte. MW’s notes: A worthy biographer of an unfairly maligned president. Hoover was one of the most able presidents. He was extraordinarily successful in business and threw aside his goals of accumulating wealth to help coordinate feeding the starving population in occupied Belgium during WWI. So well fit to be president, it’s unfortunate the Great Depression hit during his time.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

FDR by Jean Edward Smith. MW’s notes: A great president written about by an elite author. JES focuses on FDR and largely leaves out Eleanor Roosevelt’s impact, which you’ll want to supplement.

Harry Truman

Truman by David McCullough. Another contender for best presidential biography. Elite author writing on a top-of-tier-2 president who was an admirable man stepping into power at the most complicated time.

A much more recent biography, The Trials of Harry S. Truman: The Extraordinary Presidency of an Ordinary Man, 1945-1953 by Jeffrey Frank is also excellent and worth reading.

Dwight Eisenhower

Eisenhower: In War and Peace by Jean Edward Smith. MW’s notes: An elite author writing on the bottom-of-top-tier presidents.

John F. Kennedy

An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy by Robert Dallek. We both read this book and found it wasawful. Dallek focuses on his medical history, which is not as interesting as the historical events happening during his time.

I recently read the first volume of a planned two on JFK by Fredrick Logevall, JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956. It’s excellent, and I look forward to the release of volume two.

Verdict: Logevall!

Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon B. Johnson: The American Presidents Series: The 36th President, 1963-1969 by Charles Peters. A tragic Presidency in many ways that was well covered in this short biography.

Richard Nixon

Richard Nixon: The Life by John A Farrell . Awful president, but fascinating character in an excellent book by Farrell.

Gerald Ford

MW: Gerald R. Ford: An Honorable Life by James Cannon. Cannon writes well before he brings himself into the story. It’s striking how much better the first half of this biography is than the second half. Ford was a solid president who I believe made a deal with Nixon to pardon him which probably cost Ford the ability to be elected in his own right.

SA: Ordinary Man, An: The Surprising Life and Historic Presidency of Gerald R. Ford by Richard Norton Smith. This was a very good book that brought Ford to life and outlined his limitations while recognizing his stronger attributes.

Verdict: Smith’s book.

Jimmy Carter

The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter by Kai Bird. A very sympathetic biography of Carter that nevertheless feels balanced and leaves you understanding more about what he accomplished, but how his political limitations and the times he lived in impacted his ability to push through and be a better President.

Ronald Reagan

Reagan: The Life by H.W. Brands. MW’s notes: I went into the Reagan biography with a slightly negative opinion about his actual abilities relative to the favorable circumstances in the 1980s; I left the Reagan biography impressed with him as a leader and communicator. Brands is an author I’ll follow in the future. His presentation of negotiations between Reagan and Gorbachev is captivating. Highly recommended and one of the best presidential biographies I read.

George H.W. Bush

Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush . A good man, we enjoyed learning about George H.W. Bush’s life and leadership. Meacham is an excellent author and Bush is a dramatically underrated president.

Be sure to listen to this podcast episode where Michael and I discuss what we learned about investing and the economy after reading these books.

Suggested Further Reads

Ulysses S. Grant

The Fourth of July

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My Journey Through the Best Presidential Biographies

44 Presidents, 240 Biographies and One Great Adventure

18 Monday Feb 2019

Posted by Steve in Not The End!

≈ 110 Comments

American history , biographies , book reviews , presidential biographies

Just over 6 years ago I set out to read a single great biography for each president.  Unfortunately I had no way of knowing which one for each was the very best, so I decided to read multiple biographies of every president and decide for myself.

My original plan involved 125 books and a 3-year timetable. But with new biographies published every year – and dozens of excellent suggestions from you – that once-modest journey ballooned to 6 years and 240 biographies.

Very early on I knew there had to be an efficient way to save my notes, track my progress and share my thoughts. With a modest investment of time and a liberal use of search engines (“how do I start a blog?”)…this site was born!

The style of my reviews has evolved over time, but my philosophy behind them has not: I am essentially writing them for myself .

They are what I would share with my younger self if I had could travel back in time to that fateful week in 2012; they convey what I wish I had known when trying to decide which one biography to read for each president.

Along the way I learned a great deal, of course. One of the least surprising revelations: reading good biographies is an easy and enjoyable endeavor, but writing good reviews is surprisingly hard. So I can only imagine the stress, strain, angst and madness involved in writing a presidential biography. My hat is off to all who have walked that particular path.

Summary Statistics :

–   44 presidents, 240 biographies and 2,243 days

–   123,546 pages read

–   365 website posts (totaling ~220,000 words)

–   5,000+ pages of notes taken (interesting facts, notable quotes, etc.)

–   1.6 million website views by ~250,000 people from 185 countries

–   9,000 comments posted / emails received

–   at least 350,000 spam comments filtered out (thanks WordPress!)

Ratings Summary & Philosophy :

For me, the ideal presidential biography often feels like a work of fiction: wonderfully descriptive and utterly engaging. But it also possesses remarkable historical merit: broad in scope, extremely well-researched, penetrating and insightful, revealing and thought-provoking.

I appreciate biographers who take the time to collect more data than they present; who dissect, analyze, synthesize and distill; who uncover and reveal; who connect the past to the present in a given era; who follow the arc of a person’s evolution and maturation; who ask how and why someone followed a particular path.

In a great presidential biography I also expect to learn what motivated someone to seek the presidency; whether that person possessed the skills required by the nation in that moment ; whether (and how) that person adapted to the demands of the most daunting job in the world; how that president altered (for better or worse) the course of the nation; and what legacy that person left behind.

Writing a great biography is a tall order, to be sure.

Along the way I came to appreciate the risk of providing and relying upon numeric ratings. They are blunt, one-dimensional objects which tend to obscure nuance and mask complexity. Two books with an identical score can possess very different strengths and weaknesses. And, like flavors of ice cream, different people will often walk away from the same experience with a very different reaction.

Of the books I read, 234 presidential biographies received ratings:

– One biography received 5 stars: Ron Chernow’s “ Washington: A Life ” (*) – 89 biographies (38%) were rated “4” or higher – The median biography received ~3¾ stars – 26 biographies (11%) received 3 or fewer stars – The lowest-rated biography received 2 stars

My subjective ratings assessment:

4½ to 5 stars = Excellent 4 to 4¼ stars = Very Good 3¾ stars = Good 3½ stars = Fair

If I were to re-rate this set of biographies with the benefit of hindsight I would pull the bell curve out at both ends – more biographies would earn 5 stars and more would receive fewer than 3 stars. And if I had calibrated my ratings system “perfectly” from the outset I expect the median rating would have been 3½ (rather than 3¾) stars.

(*) I am often asked whether I still think this was the best presidential biography I read and whether, if I read it again, it would still receive 5 stars. An excellent question…and I’m not entirely sure of the answer. But I’m reading Ron Chernow’s “ Alexander Hamilton ” now and am reminded what I like so much about his approach and style.

Lessons Learned Along the Way :

They are too numerous to fully articulate in this post, but here are a few that come to mind:

(1) There are far more people attempting to read a biography of each president than you would imagine

(2) Reading and comparing a dozen biographies on a single president is much more difficult than I would have guessed

(3) Our nation / form of government is far more durable and resilient than most people appreciate

(4) Despite what is often reported, things have been this [good / bad / idyllic / polarized / insane] before

(5) My vocabulary has improved. Enormously .

What’s Next ?

I’ve been engaged in this quest to uncover the best presidential biographies for nearly one-fourth of my adult life, so I’m going to shift gears slightly .

It’s no secret that I was unable to read every presidential biography I would have liked: some excellent biographies were published after I had already finished a particular president, and I simply overlooked or missed a few oldies-but-goodies. Thank you for pointing many of those out to me! My follow-up list of presidential biographies currently includes 105 books / volumes (these can be found embedded in my master list of presidential biographies .)

But I’ve also assembled a “Related Reading” list of about 240 biographies of compelling people I met on this journey (folks like Ben Franklin, Frederick Douglass, Sam Houston and Winston Churchill) who were instrumental in our nation’s history, but never served as president.

And there is no escaping that some of the greatest biographies ever written cover folks like Leonardo da Vinci , Albert Einstein , Mozart and King Henry VIII .  I’ve spent a portion of the last three years assembling a master list of the best and most beloved biographies of all time – nearly 600 and counting – and it is impossible to resist the thought of tackling some of those.

→ I will now be allocating ~1/3 of my time to each of the following: follow-up presidential biographies, “Related Reading” biographies and “other” great biographies. My plan for the remainder of 2019 can be found here – it should be an exciting year!

I’ll be posting reviews of follow-up presidential biographies on this site – and updating my “best of” summary posts as appropriate. I will post “snippets” of Related Reading reviews on this site with full reviews available at http://www.thebestbiographies.com . And I will be posting reviews unrelated to the presidents only at http://www.thebestbiographies.com

What Else ?!?

I’m often asked whether I would consider addressing one or more topics in a particular format. These are almost always intriguing inquiries, but were simply impossible to undertake before I reached the end of this leg of the journey. Most common:

– Would you consider writing a post / article on the common characteristics or features of great presidents?

– Would you write a post / column / book ranking the presidents and supporting your assessments?

– Would you consider writing a biography of [_______]?

The answer(s): Maybe!

– Can I send you a (free) book we just published for you to review?

The answer: No, but thank you! I only read and review books I purchase. It’s less complicated that way 🙂

Thanks to the 5,000 or so of you who are following this site regularly and to the dozens of you who have kept up with this journey for so long and provided a steady stream of feedback: about biographies I’ve missed, your thoughts on a review just posted, alerting me to upcoming releases of significance, posting an answer to another reader’s query, etc.

You’ve all helped create a fascinating, unique and invaluable community.

The bad news: there are still lots of great books to be read…and never enough free time.  The good news: there are still lots of great books to be read…

Happy Presidents Day!

110 thoughts on “44 Presidents, 240 Biographies and One Great Adventure”

April 23, 2021 at 7:57 am

if I were rating blogs, your would definitely get 5 stars!

May 25, 2021 at 2:26 pm

Thank you for all your hard work! Your blog has been instrumental as I work my way through the challenge. I’m putting a slightly different spin on it though: I’m listening to audiobooks, mostly from Audible. So far, (I just finished “Mr. Jefferson’s Hammer” about William Henry Harrison) I have only had to resort to a physical book once- for Martin Van Buren.

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