Download or read book Battlefield Presidents written by Richard L. McElroy and published by McElroy. This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a remarkable story of two heroes whose careers led them to the White House. Zachary Taylor and Benjamin Harrison were cousins who shared much in common. From their childhood in the Ohio Valley, through schooling and military exploits, both shared similar political views. Taylor and Harrison also experienced triumph and tragedy. The author examines the lives of each man and takes a look at their families and administrations. Though neither man may be considered a great chief executive, both made valuable contributions that have been ignored or forgotten. Additionally, American society, culture, demographics, events, and lifestyles during their presidency are examined.
Download or read book Chronology of the U S Presidency 4 volumes written by Mathew Manweller and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2012-03-19 with total page 1780 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This engaging and authoritative four-volume resource offers fascinating portrayals of the 44 men who have achieved the ultimate seat of power in the United States—the presidency. From George Washington to Barack Obama, Chronology of the U.S. Presidency portrays each of the nation's chief executives in richly observed detail. Chapter by chapter, we meet the real flesh-and-blood men occupying the one office elected by the entire country, the office that most profoundly affects the workings of the government, U.S. relations with other countries, and the everyday lives of all American citizens. Spanning four volumes, this work covers each president's early life and rise to power, the pivotal events during his presidency, and when applicable, his post-presidential life. In addition, the book includes sections on the First Ladies and presidential families plus primary source documents (speeches, memos, messages to Congress), and entertaining FYI facts—for example, once bitter rivals John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died hours apart, on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence they helped create together. More than just names-and-dates history, Chronology of the U.S. Presidency helps readers understand the ways each of these intriguing men changed the country, and how he in turn was impacted by his time in power.
Download or read book Zachary Taylor written by John S. D. Eisenhower and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2008-05-27 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The rough-hewn general who rose to the nation's highest office, and whose presidency witnessed the first political skirmishes that would lead to the Civil War Zachary Taylor was a soldier's soldier, a man who lived up to his nickname, "Old Rough and Ready." Having risen through the ranks of the U.S. Army, he achieved his greatest success in the Mexican War, propelling him to the nation's highest office in the election of 1848. He was the first man to have been elected president without having held a lower political office. John S. D. Eisenhower, the son of another soldier-president, shows how Taylor rose to the presidency, where he confronted the most contentious political issue of his age: slavery. The political storm reached a crescendo in 1849, when California, newly populated after the Gold Rush, applied for statehood with an anti- slavery constitution, an event that upset the delicate balance of slave and free states and pushed both sides to the brink. As the acrimonious debate intensified, Taylor stood his ground in favor of California's admission—despite being a slaveholder himself—but in July 1850 he unexpectedly took ill, and within a week he was dead. His truncated presidency had exposed the fateful rift that would soon tear the country apart.
Download or read book Benjamin Harrison written by Charles William Calhoun and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2005-06-06 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With dazzling attention to this president's life, the social tapestry of his times, and the political dynasty he was born to which ushered in big government, Calhoun compellingly reconsiders Harrison's legacy.
Download or read book The Presidents and the Constitution written by Ken Gormley and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2016-05-10 with total page 711 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shines new light on America's brilliant constitutional and presidential history, from George Washington to Barack Obama. In this sweepingly ambitious volume, the nation’s foremost experts on the American presidency and the U.S. Constitution join together to tell the intertwined stories of how each American president has confronted and shaped the Constitution. Each occupant of the office—the first president to the forty-fourth—has contributed to the story of the Constitution through the decisions he made and the actions he took as the nation’s chief executive. By examining presidential history through the lens of constitutional conflicts and challenges, The Presidents and the Constitution offers a fresh perspective on how the Constitution has evolved in the hands of individual presidents. It delves into key moments in American history, from Washington’s early battles with Congress to the advent of the national security presidency under George W. Bush and Barack Obama, to reveal the dramatic historical forces that drove these presidents to action. Historians and legal experts, including Richard Ellis, Gary Hart, Stanley Kutler and Kenneth Starr, bring the Constitution to life, and show how the awesome powers of the American presidency have been shapes by the men who were granted them. The book brings to the fore the overarching constitutional themes that span this country’s history and ties together presidencies in a way never before accomplished.
Download or read book Millard Fillmore written by Paul Finkelman and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2011-05-10 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The oddly named president whose shortsightedness and stubbornness fractured the nation and sowed the seeds of civil war In the summer of 1850, America was at a terrible crossroads. Congress was in an uproar over slavery, and it was not clear if a compromise could be found. In the midst of the debate, President Zachary Taylor suddenly took ill and died. The presidency, and the crisis, now fell to the little-known vice president from upstate New York. In this eye-opening biography, the legal scholar and historian Paul Finkelman reveals how Millard Fillmore's response to the crisis he inherited set the country on a dangerous path that led to the Civil War. He shows how Fillmore stubbornly catered to the South, alienating his fellow Northerners and creating a fatal rift in the Whig Party, which would soon disappear from American politics—as would Fillmore himself, after failing to regain the White House under the banner of the anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic "Know Nothing" Party. Though Fillmore did have an eye toward the future, dispatching Commodore Matthew Perry on the famous voyage that opened Japan to the West and on the central issues of the age—immigration, religious toleration, and most of all slavery—his myopic vision led to the destruction of his presidency, his party, and ultimately, the Union itself.
Download or read book William Henry Harrison written by Gail Collins and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2012-01-17 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: William Henry Harrison died just 31 days after taking the oath of office in 1841. Today he is a curiosity in American history, but as Collins shows in this entertaining and revelatory biography, he and his career are worth a closer look.
Download or read book Zachary Taylor written by K. Jack Bauer and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 1993-08-01 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Considering the course his life took, one might wonder how Zachary Taylor ever came to be elected the twelfth president of the United States. According to K. Jack Bauer, Taylor “was and remains an enigma.” He was a southerner who espoused many antisouthern causes, an aristocrat with a strong feeling for the common man, an energetic yet cautious and conservative soldier. Not an intellectual, Taylor showed little curiosity about the world around him. In this biography—the most comprehensive since Holman Hamilton’s two-volume work published forty years ago—Bauer offers a fresh appraisal of Taylor’s life and suggests that Taylor may have been neither so simple nor so nonpolitical as many historians have believed. Taylor’s sixteen months as president were marked by disputes over California statehood and the Texas–New Mexico boundary. Taylor vehemently opposed slavery extension and threatened to hang those southern hotheads who favored violence and secession as a means to protect their interests. He died just as he had begun a reorganization of his administration and a recasting of the Whig party. Balanced and judicious, forthright and unreverential, and based on thoroughgoing research, this book will be for many years the standard biography of Zachary Taylor.
Download or read book Presidents and Presidencies in American History 4 volumes written by Jolyon P. Girard and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2019-10-07 with total page 1495 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This innovative encyclopedia explores the life and times of America's forty-five presidents—from the first administration to that of Donald Trump. Forty-five men have served as President of the United States since George Washington swore the oath of office in 1789 in New York City. Some have proved exceptional leaders, and others have not. Some have faced serious crises, both foreign and domestic. Franklin Roosevelt was elected to four terms, leading the country through a major economic depression and a world war, while one held the office for only a single month. Each, however, played a key role in the evolution of United States history. Each of their histories therefore remains a critical civics lesson to consider. This four-volume encyclopedia provides an expansive analysis of the life and times of each United States president in chronological order from George Washington to Donald Trump. Each chapter includes a timeline, a biographical sketch, a historical overview, and an analytical essay concerning the president and his presidency. Each also includes a substantial selection of related primary documents presenting important presidential speeches and correspondence. A suggested reading list for further study of each president rounds out each entry.
Download or read book The Black History of the White House written by Clarence Lusane and published by City Lights Books. This book was released on 2013-01-23 with total page 662 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Black History of the White House presents the untold history, racial politics, and shifting significance of the White House as experienced by African Americans, from the generations of enslaved people who helped to build it or were forced to work there to its first black First Family, the Obamas. Clarence Lusane juxtaposes significant events in White House history with the ongoing struggle for democratic, civil, and human rights by black Americans and demonstrates that only during crises have presidents used their authority to advance racial justice. He describes how in 1901 the building was officially named the “White House” amidst a furious backlash against President Roosevelt for inviting Booker T. Washington to dinner, and how that same year that saw the consolidation of white power with the departure of the last black Congressmember elected after the Civil War. Lusane explores how, from its construction in 1792 to its becoming the home of the first black president, the White House has been a prism through which to view the progress and struggles of black Americans seeking full citizenship and justice. “Clarence Lusane is one of America’s most thoughtful and critical thinkers on issues of race, class and power.”—Manning Marable "Barack Obama may be the first black president in the White House, but he's far from the first black person to work in it. In this fascinating history of all the enslaved people, workers and entertainers who spent time in the president's official residence over the years, Clarence Lusane restores the White House to its true colors."—Barbara Ehrenreich "Reading The Black History of the White House shows us how much we DON'T know about our history, politics, and culture. In a very accessible and polished style, Clarence Lusane takes us inside the key national events of the American past and present. He reveals new dimensions of the black presence in the US from revolutionary days to the Obama campaign. Yes, 'black hands built the White House'—enslaved black hands—but they also built this country's economy, political system, and culture, in ways Lusane shows us in great detail. A particularly important feature of this book its personal storytelling: we see black political history through the experiences and insights of little-known participants in great American events. The detailed lives of Washington's slaves seeking freedom, or the complexities of Duke Ellington's relationships with the Truman and Eisenhower White House, show us American racism, and also black America's fierce hunger for freedom, in brand new and very exciting ways. This book would be a great addition to many courses in history, sociology, or ethnic studies courses. Highly recommended!"—Howard Winant "The White House was built with slave labor and at least six US presidents owned slaves during their time in office. With these facts, Clarence Lusane, a political science professor at American University, opens The Black History of the White House(City Lights), a fascinating story of race relations that plays out both on the domestic front and the international stage. As Lusane writes, 'The Lincoln White House resolved the issue of slavery, but not that of racism.' Along with the political calculations surrounding who gets invited to the White House are matters of musical tastes and opinionated first ladies, ingredients that make for good storytelling."—Boston Globe Dr. Clarence Lusane has published in The Washington Post, The Miami Herald, The Baltimore Sun, Oakland Tribune, Black Scholar, and Race and Class. He often appears on PBS, BET, C-SPAN, and other national media.
Download or read book The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party written by Michael F. Holt and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2003-05-01 with total page 1298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here, Michael F. Holt gives us the only comprehensive history of the Whigs ever written. He offers a panoramic account of the tumultuous antebellum period, a time when a flurry of parties and larger-than-life politicians--Andrew Jackson, John C. Calhoun, Martin Van Buren, and Henry Clay--struggled for control as the U.S. inched towards secession. It was an era when Americans were passionately involved in politics, when local concerns drove national policy, and when momentous political events--like the Annexation of Texas and the Kansas-Nebraska Act--rocked the country. Amid this contentious political activity, the Whig Party continuously strove to unite North and South, emerging as the nation's last great hope to prevent secession.
Download or read book Andrew Johnson written by Annette Gordon-Reed and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2011-01-18 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Pulitzer Prize-winning historian recounts the tale of the unwanted president who ran afoul of Congress over Reconstruction and was nearly removed from office Andrew Johnson never expected to be president. But just six weeks after becoming Abraham Lincoln's vice president, the events at Ford's Theatre thrust him into the nation's highest office. Johnson faced a nearly impossible task—to succeed America's greatest chief executive, to bind the nation's wounds after the Civil War, and to work with a Congress controlled by the so-called Radical Republicans. Annette Gordon-Reed, one of America's leading historians of slavery, shows how ill-suited Johnson was for this daunting task. His vision of reconciliation abandoned the millions of former slaves (for whom he felt undisguised contempt) and antagonized congressional leaders, who tried to limit his powers and eventually impeached him. The climax of Johnson's presidency was his trial in the Senate and his acquittal by a single vote, which Gordon-Reed recounts with drama and palpable tension. Despite his victory, Johnson's term in office was a crucial missed opportunity; he failed the country at a pivotal moment, leaving America with problems that we are still trying to solve.
Download or read book The Forgotten Presidents written by Michael J. Gerhardt and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013-04-11 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Constitutional Legacy of Forgotten Presidents, eminent constitutional scholar Michael Gerhardt tells the stories of thirteen presidents whom most Americans do not remember and scholars think had no constitutional impact, among them Chester Arthur, Martin Van Buren, and William Howard Taft. As Gerhardt shows, our forgotten presidents played crucial roles in laying some of the groundwork followed by Lincoln and other modern presidents, as well as providing examples for future lawmakers of constitutional choices to avoid.
Download or read book Millard Fillmore Biography Of A President written by Robert J. Rayback and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2015-11-06 with total page 739 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Professor Robert J. Rayback’s history of Millard Fillmore is still the best biography of the 13th President of the United States. In one of the many unexplained, unfortunate quirks of history, most of the official papers of Fillmore’s administration were destroyed by his son. Scholars have consequently been denied the source material which is so essential to examining and gaining insight into the underlying truth of a Presidency. Regarding Fillmore, the few records that do survive can only be compiled piecemeal, a laborious task which few have had the stamina to undertake. Thus is the historical importance of Robert J. Rayback’s authoritative biography, which gives documented substance to Fillmore and his three years in office. Thoughtful and objective, Rayback’s balanced portrayal lauds Fillmore’s astuteness, as in sending Matthew Perry to open Japan to trade, and assays his faults, such as agreeing to run on the “Know Nothing” ticket in 1856. We see, as John Lord O’Brian, former regent of the University of the State of New York noted, “a devoted patriot who in all activities sought guidance from his own conscience during the critical events of the mid-nineteenth century.” Julius Pratt of the University of Buffalo concludes from the book that “without Fillmore there could have been no Lincoln.”-Print ed.
Download or read book History Buff s Guide to the Presidents written by Thomas R. Flagel and published by Sourcebooks, Inc.. This book was released on 2012-08 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Did you know that Warren G. Harding played poker in the White House at least once a week? Or that Richard Nixon was a Quaker? The History Buff's Guide to the Presidents takes a peek behind the scenes, revealing everything you ever wanted to know about the families, personal habits, and social lives of the most powerful job in the world. Author Thomas R. Flagel's unique perspective on the presidents makes this an essential book for the merely curious and hardcore history buffs alike. From George Washington to Barack Obama, Flagel's top ten lists compile the most religious presidents, the biggest scandals, and more to present a comprehensive history of the American presidents. Do You Think You Know The Presidents? Top Ten Presidential Pastimes Top Ten Most Controversial Elections Top Ten Assassinations and Attempts Top Ten Debt Presidencies Top Ten Most Influential First Ladies"
Download or read book The Fate of Their Country written by Michael F. Holt and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2005-06-20 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How partisan politics lead to the Civil War What brought about the Civil War? Leading historian Michael F. Holt convincingly offers a disturbingly contemporary answer: partisan politics. In this brilliant and succinct book, Holt distills a lifetime of scholarship to demonstrate that secession and war did not arise from two irreconcilable economies any more than from moral objections to slavery. Short-sighted politicians were to blame. Rarely looking beyond the next election, the two dominant political parties used the emotionally charged and largely chimerical issue of slavery's extension westward to pursue reelection and settle political scores, all the while inexorably dragging the nation towards disunion. Despite the majority opinion (held in both the North and South) that slavery could never flourish in the areas that sparked the most contention from 1845 to 1861-the Mexican Cession, Oregon, and Kansas-politicians in Washington, especially members of Congress, realized the partisan value of the issue and acted on short-term political calculations with minimal regard for sectional comity. War was the result. Including select speeches by Lincoln and others, The Fate of Their Country openly challenges us to rethink a seminal moment in America's history.
Download or read book Timelines of Everything written by DK and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2018-10-30 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explore 13 billion years of history in the comfort of your own home! Journey through time and discover how some of the world’s greatest events unfolded. From the Big Bang all the way through to the digital age, this incredible visual encyclopedia for children shows you just about everything that has ever happened in history. Witness history come alive as you travel through more than 130 stunning timelines. Packed with fantastic photographs and illustrations, along with informative text and fun facts. The history book covers the rise and fall of empires to ground-breaking scientific breakthroughs and inventions that changed our lives. This educational book is an imaginative way of illustrating world history for children age 8 and over. Throughout the pages, your child will get to meet the most bloodthirsty pirates of all time and discover what happened during the storming of the Bastille. It’s a fantastic book for young readers with a natural curiosity about history around the world. Find your place in the world and understand where you fit in. Whether you want to discover the history of cinema, fashion, aviation, or espionage. There is something for everyone in this glorious guide through global history! The History of Everything… Ever! This fascinating reference book tells the story of a diverse range of subjects throughout history in an easily digested graphic format! After your kids dive into this book, you'll never hear them use the words "history" and "boring" in the same sentence again. Take a trip back in time! This history book covers the following eras: • Prehistory: Before 3000 BCE • The Ancient World: 3000 BCE – 500 CE • The Medieval World: 500 – 1450 • The Age of Exploration: 1450 – 1750 • The Age of Revolution: 1750 – 1914 • The Modern World: After 1914
