The Presidents, Brian Lamb
The Presidents, Brian Lamb
List: $38.99 | Sale: $27.30
Club: $19.49

The Presidents
Noted Historians Rank America's Best--and Worst--Chief Executives

Author: Brian Lamb, Susan Swain, Douglas Brinkley, Richard Norton Smith

Narrator: Gary Tiedemann, Grace Angela Henry

Unabridged: 19 hr 15 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Published: 10/01/2019

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

The complete rankings of our best -- and worst -- presidents, based on C-SPAN's much-cited Historians Surveys of Presidential Leadership.
Over a period of decades, C-SPAN has surveyed leading historians on the best and worst of America's presidents across a variety of categories -- their ability to persuade the public, their leadership skills, their moral authority, and more. The crucible of the presidency has forged some of the very best and very worst leaders in our national history, along with everyone in between.
Based on interviews conducted over the years with a variety of presidential biographers, this book provides not just a complete ranking of our presidents, but stories and analyses that capture the character of the men who held the office. From Abraham Lincoln's political savvy and rhetorical gifts to James Buchanan's indecisiveness, this book teaches much about what makes a great leader -- and what does not.
As America looks ahead to our next election, this book offers perspective and criteria to help us choose our next leader wisely.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Peter on December 28, 2019

The end of the year and especially the end of a decade is a time for lists. I thought I would use the most popular ranking of presidents to spark a discussion. You can view the latest rankings here: [URL not allowed] I wanted to see how the presidents I have been reading about s......more

Goodreads review by Donald on May 27, 2020

This was a very entertaining and educational book. One hundred historical/presidential authorities ranked the presidents in various categories. Each chapter was an essay (based on a CSPAN television appearance) for each president, starting with the highest to the lowest. Each little essay is unique......more

Goodreads review by Randal on May 08, 2019

An interesting review of all 44 of the American Presidents, ranking them in order of first to last (Trump has not been in office long enough to be given a rating). Each president is given a chapter, and the information compiled by C-SPAN. The ratings were given by a team of 91 presidential historian......more

Goodreads review by John on March 17, 2024

The Presidents, as the title implies, is about the C-Span Presidential rankings with commentary from historians, albeit some of the contributors are not historians like Amity Shlaes. This book covers from George Washington to Barack Obama. This book is not bad by any stretch. I do not agree with the......more

Goodreads review by Monica on August 15, 2021

This book did not meet my expectations neither in formatting nor in content and assessment of political figures. Perhaps it is an impossible task since each president faced very different issues, though there are some issues nearly every president has faced. I would have preferred a format that asse......more