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 Grant’s Memoirs and a treatment of Ronald Reagan’s life, for instance. But these reviews will link only to books covered in the tenure of the blog. Secondly, I am extremely leery of reading biographies of presidents who are still living, which would include everyone from Clinton to Trump. Books on those persons will wait until I’ve finished the first ‘dead presidents’ list. 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 Adams (John Adams, David McCullough; Passionate Sage, Joseph Ellis)
Thomas Jefferson (American Sphinx, Joseph Ellis)
James Madison (James Madison, Richard Brookhiser)
James Monroe (James Monroe, Gary Hart)
John Quincy Adams (John Quincy Adams, Robert V. Remini)
Andrew Jackson (American Lion, Jon Meacham)
Martin Van Buren (Martin Van Buren, Ted Widmer)
William H. Harrison (William Henry Harrison, Gail Collins)
John Tyler (President without a Party, Charles Leahy)
James K. Polk
Zachary Taylor (Zachary Taylor, John Eisenhower)
Millard Fillmore (Millard Fllmore, Finkelman)
Franklin Pierce (Franklin Pierce; The Expatriation of Franklin Pierce)
James Buchanan (James Buchanan, Jean H. Baker)
Abraham Lincoln (And Then There was Light, Jon Meacham; The Real Lincoln, Thomas DiLorenzo, With Malice Toward None, Stephen B, Oates)
Andrew Johnson (Andrew Johnson, Annette Gordon-Reed)
Ulysses S. Grant (Ulysses S. Grant, Josiah Bunting III)
Rutherford B. Hayes (Rutherford B. Hayes, Hans Trefousse)
James A. Garfield (James Garfield, Ira Rutkow; Destiny of the Republic, Candice Millard)
Chester Arthur (The Unexpected President, Scott Greenberger)
Grover Cleveland (The Last Jeffersonian, Man of Iron)
Benjamin Harrison (Benjamin Harrison, Charles Calhoun)
Grover Cleveland (The Last Jeffersonian, Man of Iron)
William McKinley
Theodore Roosevelt (To Rescue the American Spirit, Brett Baier)
William H. Taft (William Howard Taft, Jeffrey Rosen)
Woodrow Wilson (Woodrow Wilson, H.W. Brands)
Warren G. Harding (Warren G. Harding, John Dean)
Calvin Coolidge (Coolidge, Amity Schlaes)
Herbert Hoover (Herbert Hoover, William E. Leuchtenburg)
Franklin D. Roosevelt (No Ordinary Time, Doris Kearns Goodwin)
Harry S. Truman (Truman, David McCullough)
Dwight D. Eisenhower (The Age of Eisenhower, William I. Hitchcock)
John F. Kennedy (John F. Kennedy, Alan Brinkley; JFK: Elusive Hero, Chris Matthews)
Lyndon B. Johnson
Richard M. Nixon (Being Nixon, Evan Thomas)
Gerald R. Ford (A Time to Heal, Gerald R. Ford)
Jimmy Carter (Jimmy Carter, Julian E. Zelizer)
Ronald Reagan
George H. W. Bush (41: A Portrait of my Father, George W. Bush; All the Best, George Bush, George HW Bush.)
Bill Clinton
George W. Bush
Barack Obama
Donald Trump
Joe Biden
Donald Trump
