Dead Presidents
By Anthony Bergen
E-Mail: bergen.anthony@gmail.com
Hey everybody! Times are tough and money is tight, so I want you all to know that I understand. That’s why you can now buy my book Tributes and Trash Talk: What Our Presidents Said About Each Other for just $4.95! That’s right — for less than $5, you can instantly download Tributes and Trash Talk for your Kindle or your NOOK and start enjoying the insightful, poignant, funny, bitter, and often shocking or downright mean-spirited things that our Presidents have said about each other. My book is filled with over 350 pages of candid comments straight from the mouths of every President from George Washington to Barack Obama, as well as their Confederate counterpart Jefferson Davis.
Not only is Tributes and Trash Talk a bargain at just $4.95, but you can get the book easily and instantly and immediately start enjoying it on your iPhone, iPad, Kindle, or NOOK. For those of you who are NOOK users, get my book right now by following this link to Barnes & Noble!
If you have a Kindle, iPad, or iPhone, you can get Tributes and Trash Talk: What Our Presidents Said About Each Other by heading over to Amazon via this link.
What if you don’t have an e-reader? No problem, you can still enjoy my book. Simply download the FREE Kindle app for your phone, your tablet, your laptop, or your desktop. Once you download the FREE Kindle app, follow this link and get your copy of Tributes and Trash Talk: What Our Presidents Said About Each Other for just $4.95.
Less than $5.00 will get you a copy of my book! Hell, it’s such a bargain I wrote the damn thing and I feel like I should buy a copy. Get your copy of Tributes and Trash Talk: What Our Presidents Said About Each Other instantly for just $4.95!
“Men are products, expressions, reflections; they live to the extent that they coincide with their epoch, or to the extent that they differ markedly from it.” — José Martí, Cuban Revolutionary/Poet/Patriot, 1887
Men die — even Revolutionaries like Ché Guevara, Fidel Castro, and Hugo Chávez (well, maybe not Fidel, he’s still fighting). The true measure of their impact, however, is not simply what they did, but what remains once they are gone. In my latest article for AND Magazine, “¿Viva La Revolucíon?”, I look at a connection between Ché and Chávez, and wonder whether their Revolutions died with the Revolutionaries. I also question those Americans who celebrated Chávez’s death much like they celebrated Osama bin Laden’s despite the fact that bin Laden planned terror attacks which killed thousands of Americans while Chávez was basically just an obnoxious presence. Is it as much of a capital crime to antagonize America with annoying rhetoric as it is to target innocent Americans for murder through terror? While I don’t make apologies for Hugo Chávez, in the wake of his death, I try to see his impact through the eyes of his neighbors in Latin America whose interactions with the late Venezuelan leader were largely affectionate. Go check out my article in AND Magazine, “¿Viva La Revolucíon?”, and please click the Facebook “like” or “recommend” button underneath the article’s title!
Hey guys, I’m not going to take this time to once again shamelessly plug my book, Tributes and Trash Talk: What Our Presidents Said About Each Other (KINDLE•NOOK), because that’s just not the type of thing that I do. Nope, not me.
What I am going to do, however, is ask a big favor.
For those of you who have purchased the book, I’d REALLY appreciate it if you took a moment to go to the Amazon or Barnes & Noble page and rate the book or give it some customer feedback. It helps the book’s positioning in search results to have comments and ratings. It will only take a minute or two. I do believe that you have to have purchased the book in order to rate it or comment on it.
If you haven’t bought the book or don’t feel like rating and commenting on it, you could instead leave some comments or feedback on my official author page on Amazon. Anything is helpful and everything is appreciated, so thank you ahead of time!
H-Wood: Proud To Be From The S.A.C.
33.
A Birthday Ramble.
I’m a long way away from Sacramento. I left nearly three years ago and haven’t been back, and there have always been days where I hated it as much as I loved it, but Sacramento is and will always be my home. And, 33 years ago today, January 20, 1980, I was born right downtown, at Sutter Memorial Hospital.
For the first three decades of my life, for better or worse, Sacramento raised me and made me who I am. The scars on my body and the creases on my face bear the names of the streets that I prowled — El Camino Avenue, Fulton Avenue, Arden Way, Watt Avenue, Marconi Avenue, Edison Avenue, Howe Avenue, Bell Street, Northgate Boulevard, Grand Avenue, Norwood, Auburn Boulevard, Lerwick, Larchwood, Ball Way, Kent Drive.
The light in my eyes reflect my favorite haunts: Capitol Park ringed by its barrier of palm trees, Old Sacramento, Tower Bridge, the Esquire Grill, the lobby of the Sheraton Grand, an empty Light Rail train in mid-morning, the view from the multi-story parking garage directly across L Street from the State Capitol building, the seismograph a few steps away from the door to the Governor’s office, the orange trees on the grounds of the Capitol where, if you know where to stand, you can peek directly into the window of the Governor’s office, the cigar shop on Front Street, the stretch of 160 between Arden Fair Mall and the wild licorice bushes near the Radisson and American River levee where you could smell the Wonder Bread factory cooking early in the morning.
The shadows on my face and the perpetual bags under my eyes are reminders of long days and never-ending nights. Some of them were fun, some of them were not, but all of them were experiences. Friendships established, relationships demolished, life always being lived. Everything shaded by the sheer number of trees — practically anything can grow in Sacramento’s climate — not merely dotting the city, but populating it. Trees all over the city like my memories — wild, diverse, growing, dying, happy, sad, overcrowded at times, but sometimes lonely.
People like to say that they’ve made mistakes in their lives and then add that they regret nothing. I’ve made mistakes in my life and I regret many of them. I even regret some of the things that weren’t mistaken. We don’t learn from mistakes. We learn from the consequences of our mistakes — and those are usually called “regrets”. For many years, I lived too slowly, and then I lived too fast. With many people, I loved too quickly, and then I loved too harsh. When somebody hurt me — especially somebody that I cared about — I often tried to destroy them and who they were to me and what we shared. Up until recently, I still did that — annihilate attachments, eliminate emotions, crush connections, liquidate love, ravage relationships…eradicate, exterminate, desolate, shatter, sabotage, vaporize, ruin, ruin, ruin. Today, at 33 years old, I now actively seek to preserve rather than obliterate. Seems odd that I should have to work so hard at preservation when, professionally, my life’s work — the study and promotion of history — is, at its core, an act of preservation.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s not all darkness and shadows, debris fields and wastelands. Like everyone, I’m simply visited by the cloud of depression that Winston Churchill would call “the black dog”. But I am in a better place than I have been in close to ten years. I have somehow found a way to actually make a living with my writing. It’s so surreal and such a long time coming that I still feel like I tricked somebody. The idea of advertising revenue and royalty checks backed by real money, legitimate legal tender, coming my way because of words that I wrote continues to blow me away. For years, I wondered what it would be like to be a professional writer and, in many ways, it’s inexplicable. For some reason, I always figured that I would realize that I had reached that point when some editor sat me down and said “You’re hired.” But, really, I didn’t recognize that I had reached that level until it suddenly hit me that I was somehow getting paid for the things that I was writing. By no means have I “made it”, but I’m doing what I’ve always wanted to do, and, at 33, that makes me happy. It still doesn’t feel quite real, but it feels right. It feels like I deserve it because, despite those mistakes and regrets, this is the one thing that I’ve always worked hard at and taken completely, utterly, 100% seriously.
I like the fact that my birthday is close to the beginning of the year. It allows me to feel like the new year is genuinely a new year for me. The past few years have been difficult — personally, professionally, emotionally, and even physically. Of course, 33 isn’t 63, but I feel every day of every month of my life when I wake up in the morning. I feel it in my bones. I see it in my eyes. But I’m still here. I have all of limbs and all of my hair, and I know my brain is still working hard because I can’t slow it down when I try to sleep. That race never ends.
It’s 2013 and I am 33. I like the number “3”. All of my life, whenever I set an alarm or set the microwave or have a target number of sets for a workout, the target number I use always either has a “3” in it or is divisible by 3. I don’t have many superstitions, but that is one of them. So, both 2013 and the age of 33 give me an optimistic feeling. I haven’t had a great year since 2002 or 2003. Some of them have been downright horrible, particularly 2005, 2009, 2010, and 2011. Last year was a bit better, but I feel like the year 2013 and the age of 33 will prove that I have turned the page. I don’t exactly know why or how, but I’m now old enough to realize that hope and optimism should never be dismissed. For the past decade, I have been so thirsty for reason and hungry for logic that I’ve needed to know the explanation for everything. That hasn’t necessarily resulted in happiness, so I’m going to let hope and optimism stick around this year.
I didn’t really mean to ramble on like this or get all philosophical just because it’s my birthday. It just happened. And, let’s be honest, I just wrote a whole bunch of words without really saying anything. But, I rarely get personal here. However, hearing this song brings back a lot of memories and a blank computer screen, blinking icon, and welcoming keyboard was an invitation to open up for once.
I am a long way away from Sacramento — in more ways than just the mileage distance. I am a better person than I was three years ago, two years ago, even five months ago. Goals that I have set — goals which seemed to never get any closer for many years — have been met and more have been established. I feel like I learn something new every day. When I don’t, I feel like that day has been a failure and, although 33 doesn’t seem old, who knows how many days I actually have left to learn, create, teach, share? I’m a long way from Sacramento and I don’t have family here. I don’t have many friends here. But I have a huge personal library of books that I rarely have had to pay for. I published my own first book and people actually bought it (and continue to buy it). I’m in the process of finishing my second book. The book reviews that I write have received attention from publishers and big-name authors who I have revered. I’ve become a person who college kids will e-mail with questions about their studies and a historian that mainstream news outlets like Bloomberg have reached out to for commentary. I’m in a good place.
I am a long way from those street signs that I mentioned. I now live in a tiny town of about 2,000 people — a town the size of my junior high school. I’m not kept awake by police helicopters or hours of sirens. I’m not worried when I take a walk to the grocery store or the park. I live in peace, as we all should. As H-Wood’s song says, I’m proud to be from Sacramento, but I’m also proud to be in New Haven. I’m proud to have made it to where I am. I’m proud to know that, at 33, I have made improvements, made my life better, made people who know me proud of what I have become.
I am a long way away from Sacramento, but in many ways, I am still home. I’m proud to be from the S.A.C., but I’m also proud to be me. Yes, I feel every day of my 33 years and, while I used to look young for my age, I now look every day of 33, too. But what I feel is 33 years of memories and experiences that continue to shape me and, hopefully, make an impact on others. Maybe I don’t love enough or put enough trust in others, but I will. It’s taken me all this time to finally love and trust myself, so I think I’m ready to try it out on others. I’d like to think that this is an example of that because in this new year of my life, I’m going to try to lift the curtain and share my history, as well as our country’s history. Don’t worry — you’re not going to get rambling dissertations like this all the time — but I wanted to share this today so that I can make sure that I’m accountable for the improvements I strive to continue. Of course, it’s far easier sharing myself with 10,000 readers who I don’t know than on person that I do (yes, you read that correctly, I’d rather stand and talk in front of a crowd of 80,000 than sit in a small group of three).
Alright, alright, enough out of me. Thanks to everybody who is sending birthday wishes today and to anyone bored brave enough to make it to the end of this post. It’s 2013, I’m 33, I’m proud to be from the S.A.C., I’m proud to be where I am right now, and I look forward to my next year of sunshine and shadows and, of course, plenty of history.
I would like to take a moment to confirm that the rumors are true: Yes, today, January 20th, is my birthday (or, as the cool kids like to call it, my “birfday”). I appreciate all of the nice birthday messages that I’ve already received through Tumblr, Facebook, and/or e-mail. I’d also like to compliment President Obama for cleverly (and graciously) deciding to be officially sworn in for his second term today at noon in a low-key event and postponing the ceremonial Inauguration Day activities until tomorrow so that he would not be overshadowed by my very special day.
Now, I’m sure that many of you are looking at your computer or your phone right now and thinking, “Goddamn, I really love Anthony Bergen. How could I possibly pay back my all-time favorite Presidential historian with a birthday gift that would show my appreciation for everything that he’s ever done for me?” Don’t worry — many people feel the same exact way today, so you are not alone.
However, I am more than happy to share my stories with all of you and your support is the best possible gift that I could ever receive. So, instead, I want you to do something for yourself today. Instead of the $50-to-$500 that you intended to spend on me (and with good reason), I want you to spend $6.99 on yourself — the very best $6.99 you’ll ever spend. For my birthday, I want you to buy YOURSELF a copy of my recently-released book, Tributes and Trash Talk: What Our Presidents Said About Each Other, a candid look at how each of our Presidents was thought of by their peers in the world’s most exclusive fraternity. Over 350 pages of brilliant, poignant, funny, mean-spirited, contradictory, and petty quotes by American Presidents about every President from George Washington to Barack Obama, including Confederate President Jefferson Davis. For just $6.99, not only can you get a copy of my book instantly, but it’s a perfect opportunity to treat yourself on my birthday.
You can get Tributes and Trash Talk immediately and start reading it this morning. If you have a Kindle, iPad, or iPhone, my book is available right now via Amazon. Those of you who don’t have an actual Kindle device can download Amazon’s Kindle app for your iPad or iPhone for FREE and then read my book. For those who have a NOOK, Tributes and Trash Talk is available just as instantly and at the same low price of $6.99 via Barnes & Noble.
I’d have the most wonderful birthday if my wonderful readers (that would be you) bought themselves a copy of Tributes and Trash Talk today! I’d love to see 20 books sold today. Get yourself a copy of the book, for your sake and for mine. You won’t be disappointed!
For now, I will settle for #4 on Amazon’s Hot New Releases list for books about Presidents & Heads of State, but my next book better get to #1!
Then again, you can help try to push me to #1 with this new book of mine, Tributes and Trash Talk: What Our Presidents Said About Each Other. My fans in the United States, United Kingdom, and India have definitely stepped up this week and purchased some copies of my book, but I haven’t gotten any love from Canada! What’s up with that? Same with the Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese, and Portuguese editions. I thought I was a worldwide phenomenon, but I must have been mistaken.
It’s okay, though. The world can still make it up to me. You can get Tributes and Trash Talk instantly for just $6.99 from Amazon for your Kindle, iPhone, or iPad.
Did you get a NOOK instead? No worries — head over to Barnes & Noble and get my book at the same low price, a bargain for over 350 pages of remarkable, candid quotes by American Presidents about their fellow chief executives.
Maybe you’re old-fashioned like me and don’t have a Kindle or a NOOK device, but you still REALLY want to read Tributes and Trash Talk. All you have to do is go download the Kindle app from Amazon — it’s absolutely, 100% FREE to do so — and then you can buy my book and read it via the Kindle app on your smart phone, your tablet, your laptop, or your desktop.
Don’t miss out! After all, I am Chester A. Arthur’s all-time favorite author*!
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*I totally made that up just now. There is no actual evidence that I am President Arthur’s favorite author. Then again, there is no evidence that says that I’m not, so you might want to consider that, too…
For almost five years, I have found a home here on Tumblr for a passion that I have always had — writing about history, particularly the history of our country’s Presidents and Presidency. Dead Presidents began as a place for me to post essays that I never though others would read, and grew into a site that thousands of history-lovers just like me read every day. I’ve been able to share the stories that I love, interact with others who share my interests, and answer thousands of questions in a way that I hope my readers find entertaining, informative, fun, and, even educational.
That is why I have been so excited this week to present my first book, Tributes and Trash Talk: What Our Presidents Said About Each Other. I have been working on several projects and Tributes and Trash Talk is the first to be ready for release, and I’ve been so proud to put it on sale this week. I don’t expect the book to make me rich — if I did, I wouldn’t sell over 350 pages for just $6.99. What it is, I hope, is the beginning of a new phase where I enhance Dead Presidents with several upcoming book projects. In order to do this in a way to make each new book bigger than the last, I ask for your support, and I thank those of you who have already given it.
If you haven’t had an opportunity to pick it up yet, you can get Tributes and Trash Talk, a fun collection of remarkable quotes by our Presidents about the other members of their exclusive fraternity, right now for just $6.99. If you have a Kindle, iPhone, or iPad, you can get the book, which features every President from George Washington to Barack Obama, instantly from Amazon. For those of you with the NOOK device, you download my book right now from Barnes & Noble. And you don’t need a Kindle or NOOK to read Tributes and Trash Talk. You can download the Kindle app from Amazon for FREE and use it to read my book on your smart phone, your tablet, your laptop, or your desktop. I’m old-fashioned and not a big fan of e-books, either, butTributes and Trash Talk looks great on all platforms and it’s a bargain for what it contains!
Thank you all for your continued support of Dead Presidents and I look forward to sharing more of my projects with you in the coming months!
When the incredibly talented Betsy Dye designed the cover of my book with those awesome Presidential silhouettes, she also made one of me and, I don’t know about you, but I think I would fit into the roster of Presidents pretty well, no? In 2016, I will finally be Constitutionally eligible and there’s something almost poetic about the fact that I’ve spent so much of my life studying and writing about the Presidents and Presidency and that my birthday (January 20th in case you’re planning parties and gifts) is actually Inauguration Day, right? Is “poetic” the right word, or “creepy”?
Well, either way, I know that I’m not really POTUS material, although I’d love to hear what other Presidents would say about me. And, yes, this has just been a clumsy way to sneak in a plug for my new book, Tributes and Trash Talk: What Our Presidents Said About Each Other, which is available RIGHT NOW. Featuring over 350 pages of candid comments by the Presidents about their fellow Chief Executives, Tributes and Trash Talk is full of remarkable quotes about every American President from George Washington to Barack Obama (and even Confederate President Jefferson Davis).
For just $6.99 you can get Tributes and Trash Talk instantly from Amazon for your Kindle, iPhone, or iPad. If you don’t have a Kindle, you can download Amazon’s Kindle app for FREE, buy my book, and read it on your smart phone, your tablet, your laptop, or your desktop. It’s simple, it’s fun, it looks great, and it’s completely worth it. If you have a NOOK, you can get Tributes and Trash Talk from Barnes & Noble quickly and easily for the same low price!
Did you forget to buy a Christmas gift for the history buff in your family? Did you not get the book that you had on your wish list? Do you want to support your old Tumblr buddy Anthony and be able to tell everyone how cool you are by showing off a new book and saying that you know the author? If so, get your copy of Tributes and Trash Talk right now!
(And, if not, get yourself a copy of Tributes and Trash Talk anyway.)
Anonymous Asks:
deadpresidents Said:
I totally understand. I love having a book in my hand and being able to flip through the pages and seeing it up on my bookshelves (or, in stacks of books on my floor since I fill up my shelves so quickly). It’s tough to love an e-book.
Unfortunately, there are no plans right now for printed copies of Tributes and Trash Talk. Believe me, I’d love to have it available in every possible way and I’m working hard to have my next book available in print and in e-book format. But, this first edition of Tributes and Trash Talk will only be available as an e-book. My plan is to update the book every year or two, so I hope to see it in print sometime in the future.
If you don’t have an actual Kindle or NOOK device, there is the option of downloading Amazon’s FREE Kindle app for your phone, your tablet, or your laptop/desktop (Mac or PC). I know it’s not the same as having a book in your hands, but Tributes and Trash Talklooks pretty good when you read it via that free app. You can even read it through your browser after downloading the Kindle app and buying the book.
Many of you asked about it yesterday, so I’m happy to report that my new book, Tributes and Trash Talk: What Our Presidents Said About Each Other, is now available for sale for your NOOK device via Barnes & Noble. The book features over 350 pages of remarkable quotes (ranging from insightful and poignant to hilarious and downright mean-spirited) by American Presidents about the other members of their exclusive fraternity. Every President from George Washington to Barack Obama is represented, and I even included what some of the Presidents thought about their Confederate counterpart, Jefferson Davis. I’m proud of the collection that I’ve put together in Tributes and Trash Talk and think that you will enjoy it, too. And, at just $6.99, it’s a bargain for the information and entertainment you’ll get from the book! So, if you’re a NOOK user, you can get the book instantly from Barnes & Noble’s website.
Of course, if you don’t have a NOOK, you can still get Tributes and Trash Talk just as quickly and easily for your Kindle, iPhone, or iPad via Amazon. If you don’t have an e-reader, you can still get my book. Just download the Kindle app for FREE for your phone, your tablet, your laptop, or your desktop and then you can make Tributes and Trash Talk: What Our Presidents Said About Each Other the first book in your e-library!
One last note: I want to sincerely thank everybody who has supported this book and this blog in any way. When I chose to publish Tributes and Trash Talk this way, I did so because I know how loyal and supportive my followers have always been here on Tumblr. I recognized that I was fortunate enough to have a built-in audience that I felt would support a book release. I have not been disappointed. Thanks to everyone who has bought a book already and to those of you who are planning on doing so. I’m also thankful to those of you who reblogged my posts about the book, shared it on Facebook or Twitter, and said kind things about me when doing so. I genuinely appreciate it. There will be more book releases like this from me and, as in this case, whenever I am able to control the price, I will strive to always make my books affordable to show how grateful I am to my readers.
Seriously, thank you.
(Oh, and go ahead and buy more copies of Tributes and Trash Talk.)
I’m not sure if I mentioned it or not tonight, but I wrote a book that you can purchase and begin reading instantly. Tributes and Trash Talk: What Our Presidents Said About Each Other is a fascinating collection of remarkable, candid, insightful, and sometimes downright mean-spirited and nasty quotes by the Presidents about the other members of their exclusive fraternity.
For just $6.99, you’ll find over 350 pages of American Presidents talking about their predecessors and successors, from George Washington to Barack Obama. You’ll even find quotes by the Presidents about Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Any fan of Dead Presidents or history will enjoy Tributes and Trash Talk. You can buy my book right now from Amazon for your Kindle, iPhone, or iPad. It’s Christmas, so purchase Tributes and Trash Talk for the history buff in your family, or buy it for yourself because you deserve it! Or buy it for Rudolph’s cross-eyed ass and his goofy red nose or for all those ghetto things that nobody wants to play with from the Island of Misfit Toys. Get Tributes and Trash Talk right now and see how many different Presidents refer to Richard Nixon as a “son of a bitch”! This book is such a bargain at $6.99 that I’m going to buy a copy for myself even though I wrote it!
Oh, and check out Betsy Dye’s badass cover art for Tributes and Trash Talk — yet another reason to buy the book RIGHT NOW:
Thank you for the holiday wishes!
If you are looking to get my new book, Tributes and Trash Talk: What Our Presidents Said About Each Other, for the Nook, it should be available via the Barnes & Noble website soon — hopefully, later tonight, actually. For some reason, Barnes & Noble takes a while longer to process than Amazon. For Nook owners, I’ll be sure to plug that link approximately 639,000 times when it goes live.
Otherwise, you can get Tributes and Trash Talk immediately from Amazon for your Kindle, iPhone, or iPad. I know that I have been shamelessly promoting my book, but I’m pretty damn excited about finally getting it out there, especially because of Betsy’s badass cover art. Plus, I worked hard on it and think that it truly is a bargain — over 350 pages of remarkable quotes by Presidents about Presidents for just $6.99!
I’m really pushing Tributes and Trash Talk because a solid amount of sales over the next 72 hours will be helpful for two other projects that I have in the pipeline — one of which is a “real”, printed copy of a book with a heavy influence on my original writing (essays on the Presidency that have never been published before). I know that I’m a little biased since it’s my book, but if I wasn’t the person who wrote Tributes and Trash Talk, I’d be incredibly excited to read it. Buy it as a Christmas gift for a history buff or a Christmas gift for yourself. Hell, buy it as a Christmas gift for me!
I am excited and proud to announce that my book, Tributes and Trash Talk: What Our Presidents Said About Each Other, is available for purchase right now! That’s right…I wrote a book and you can buy it this very moment!
Maybe you’re searching for a last-minute gift for a history-lover or want to buy yourself a little gift (I think you deserve it). Maybe you just want to support Dead Presidents and your old buddy Anthony. You don’t need an excuse, you just need $6.99 to get Tributes and Trash Talk instantly via Amazon for your Kindle, iPhone, or iPad.
Tributes and Trash Talk is a fascinating collection of remarkable quotes by the small group of Americans who have occupied the Presidency about the other members of their exclusive fraternity, from George Washington to Barack Obama (and even including Confederate President Jefferson Davis). I’m extremely excited to publish this book, and grateful for the support that I know I can count on from my fellow Presidential history buffs here on Tumblr.
With over 350 pages of candid, sometimes poignant, often caustic commentary by the Presidents about the Presidents, Tributes and Trash Talk: What Our Presidents Said About Each Other is a bargain and an insightful look at how our nation’s Chief Executive felt about one another. Buy it instantly from Amazon for your Kindle, iPhone, or iPad. If you have a Nook, the book should be available from Barnes & Noble later tonight and I’ll be sure to share that link when it goes live.
