Hail to the Chief

As part of my America @ 250 project, I am revisiting an idea for a reading series I had a few years ago and then forgot about: a presidential biographies reading list. I should note that I have read more biographies than appear here: I’ve read both Ford and Grant’s memoirs, for instance, as well as a treatment of Ronald Reagan’s life. But these reviews will link only to books covered in the tenture of the blog. I definitely do not intend on finishing this list this year, in part because I’m missing like thirty dudes and that would be a huge portion of my 2026 reading. Secondly, I am extremely leery of reading biographies of presidents who are still living, which would include everyone from Clinton to Trump. There are also some presidents who I may want to read multiple books of, depending on how interesting I find their characters and how fairly or competently I think they are treated.

George Washington (His Excellency, Joseph Ellis)
John Adam (John Adams, David McCullough; Passionate Sage, Joseph Ellis)
Thomas Jefferson (American Sphinx, Joseph Ellis)
James Madison
James Monroe
John Quincy Adams
Andrew Jackson (American Lion, Jon Meacham – in progress)
Martin Van Buren (Martin Van Buren, Ted Widmer)
William H. Harrison
John Tyler (President without a Party, Charles Leahy)
James K. Polk
Zachary Taylor (Zachary Taylor, John Eisnhower)
Millard Fillmore (Millard Fllmore, Finkelman)
Franklin Pierce (Franklin Pierce; The Expatriation of Franklin Pierce)
James Buchanan (James Buchanan, Jean H. Baker)
Abraham Lincoln
Andrew Johnson
Ulysses S. Grant
Rutherford B. Hayes
James A. Garfield
Chester Arthur
Grover Cleveland (The Last Jeffersonian, Man of Iron)
Benjamin Harrison
Grover Cleveland (The Last Jeffersonian, Man of Iron)
William McKinley
Theodore Roosevelt
William H. Taft
Woodrow Wilson
Warren G. Harding
Calvin Coolidge
Herbert Hoover
Franklin D. Roosevelt (No Ordinary Time, Doris Kearns Goodwin)
Harry S. Truman
Dwight D. Eisenhower
John F. Kennedy
Lyndon B. Johnson
Richard M. Nixon
Gerald R. Ford
Jimmy Carter
Ronald Reagan
George H. W. Bush
Bill Clinton
George W. Bush
Barack Obama
Donald Trump
Joe Biden
Donald Trump