Dead Presidents
By Anthony Bergen
E-Mail: bergen.anthony@gmail.com
This is something that I have been meaning to do, and something that lots of people have requested over the past couple of years. I’ve created a page (linked right under the title of my Tumblr) of my essential books. This list is organized by types of books, Presidents, or different eras of history.
The list is a work-in-progress. By no means is it definitive or complete or in any sort of order of rank. It’s simply a place that you can go to see what I consider my favorite or best books to read. These are books that have been essential to my studies of the Presidency or History, and includes books that are important to my writing, as well as books that I just straight up enjoy.
That Essential Books page will remain where it is for your convenience, and while I’ve just started with listing a few dozen books, you can be sure that the list will grow. If you don’t see a book on there right now that you feel is important, you don’t need to let me know about it because: (1) it’s my list and (2) it’s admittedly incomplete.
I hope it is helpful, and keep checking back to the page for more additions.
Since I got quite a few requests, here is the list of the books that I have on the bookshelves above the desk in my office. For the most part, these are my really essential and/or favorite books. Many are books that I just like to have nearby for quick reference, if necessary. You’ll also find that one individual President is prominently featured, unsurprisingly.
Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain (2008, Harper Perennial)
Maryanne Wolf
Order
Campaigns: A Century of Presidential Races (2001, DK Publishing)
From the Photo Archives of The New York Times
Order
The American President: The Human Drama of Our Nation’s Highest Office (1999, Riverhead Books)
Philip B. Kunhardt, Jr./Philip B. Kunhardt, III/Peter W. Kunhardt
Order
Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations (2002, Little, Brown)
Sixteenth Edition
Order
Mr. President: The Human Side of America’s Chief Executives (1998, Time-Life Books)
David Rubel
Order
“To the Best of My Ability”: The American Presidency, First Edition (2000, DK Publishing)
General Editor: James M. McPherson/Editor: David Rubel
Order
Star-Spangled Men: America’s Ten Worst Presidents (1998, Touchstone)
Nathan Miller
Order
Presidential Anecdotes (1996, Oxford University Press)
Paul F. Boller, Jr.
Order
Presidential Campaigns: From George Washington to George W. Bush (2004, Oxford University Press)
Paul F. Boller, Jr.
Order
Presidential Inaugurations (2001, Harcourt)
Paul F. Boller, Jr.
Order
The Presidency of Franklin Pierce (1991, University Press of Kansas)
Larry Gara
Order
Presidential Leadership: Rating the Best and the Worst in the White House (2004, Wall Street Journal Books)
Edited by James Taranto, The Wall Street Journal, and Leonard Leo, The Federalist Society
Order
Front Row at the White House: My Life and Times (1999, Touchstone)
Helen Thomas
Order
Thanks for the Memories, Mr. President: Wit and Wisdom from the Front Row at the White House (2002, Scribner)
Helen Thomas
Order
Presidential Temples: How Memorials and Libraries Shape Public Memory (2005, University Press of Kansas)
Benjamin Hufbauer
Order
The Modern American Presidency (2003, University Press of Kansas)
Lewis L. Gould
Order
Inside The White House: The Hidden Lives of the Modern Presidents and the Secrets of the World’s Most Powerful Institution (1995, Pocket Books)
Ronald Kessler
Order
They Also Ran: The Story of the Men Who Were Defeated for the Presidency (1968, Signet)
Irving Stone
Order
Franklin Pierce: Young Hickory of the Granite Hills (1958, University of Pennsylvania Press)
Roy Franklin Nichols
Order
The Final Days (1976, Touchstone)
Bob Woodward/Carl Bernstein
Order
Franklin Pierce, 1804-1869: Chronology-Documents-Bibliographical Aids (1968, Oceana Publications)
Edited by Irving J. Sloan
Order
Lincoln: A Novel (1984, Vintage)
Gore Vidal
Order
Hail to the Chief: The Making and Unmaking of American Presidents (1996, Oxford University Press)
Robert Dallek
Order
Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Plunges Into the Presidency (2004, Portable Press)
The Bathroom Readers’ Hysterical Society
Order
The Mortal Presidency: Illness and Anguish in the White House (1992, Basic Books) Robert E. Gilbert
Order
Which President Killed a Man?: Tantalizing Trivia and Fun Facts About Our Chief Executives and First Ladies (2003, Contemporary Books)
James Humes
Order
Presidential Ambition: Gaining Power at Any Cost (1999, HarperPerennial)
Richard Shenkman
Order
After the White House: Former Presidents as Private Citizens (2004, Palgrave Macmillan) Max J. Skidmore
Order
A Call To America: Inspiring Quotations from the Presidents of the United States (2002, Gramercy Books)
Edited by Bryan Curtis
Order
Best Little Stories From the White House, Second Edition (2005, Cumberland House)
C. Brian Kelly
Order
Fraternity: A Journey in Search of Five Presidents (2004, Crown)
Bob Greene
Order
Secret Lives of the U.S. Presidents (2004, Quirk)
Cormac O’Brien
Order
Secret Lives of the First Ladies (2005, Quirk)
Cormac O’Brien
Order
Who Shot The President? The Death of John F. Kennedy (1988, Random House)
Judy Donnelly
(This is a book for kids which is probably the first Presidents book I ever received and got me into this obsession; I have no idea where you can find it)
Who’s Buried In Grant’s Tomb? A Tour of Presidential Gravesites (2003, PublicAffairs)
Brian Lamb (with Richard Norton Smith and Douglas Brinkley)
Order
The 3 A.M. Epiphany: Uncommon Writing Exercises That Transform Your Fiction (2005, Writer’s Digest Books)
Brian Kiteley
Order
The 4 A.M. Breakthrough: Unconventional Writing Exercises That Transform Your Fiction (2008, Writer’s Digest Books)
Brian Kiteley
Order
The New College Latin & English Dictionary (1966, Amsco)
John C. Traupman
Order
English Words from Latin and Greek Elements (1965, The University of Arizona Press) Donald M. Ayers
Order
Webster’s Spanish Dictionary (2000, Random House)
Donald F. Solá
Order
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (2006, HarperCollins)
Order
2009 Writer’s Market Deluxe Edition (2008, Writer’s Digest Books)
Edited by Robert Lee Brewer
Order
The Rose That Grew From Concrete (1999, Pocket Books)
Tupac Shakur
Order
From Mount Vernon to Crawford: A History of the Presidents and Their Retreats (2005, Hyperion)
Kenneth T. Walsh
Order
Abraham Lincoln: His Speeches and Writings, Reproduction of 1946 Edition (2001, Da Capo Press)
Edited by Roy P. Basler
Order
The Deaths of the Popes (2004, McFarland & Company)
Wendy J. Reardon
Order
Lyndon Baines Johnson, Late a President of the United States: Memorial Tributes Delivered In Congress (1973, United States Government Printing Office)
(This was published by Congress after LBJ’s death; I’m not sure if it’s publicly available. The copy I bought somehow had made it all the way to a great independent bookstore in Sacramento from the office of Patsy Mink, a former Member of the House of Representatives)
The White House Tapes: Eavesdropping on the President, Book & CD Set (2003, The New Press)
Edited by John Prados
Order
The White House: An Illustrated History (2003, Scholastic)
Catherine O’Neill Grace
Order
The Civil War: The Assassination - Death of the President (1987, Time-Life Books) Champ Clark and the Editors of Time-Life Books
Order
The Presidents: Their Lives, Families and Great Decisions as told by The Saturday Evening Post (1989, The Curtis Publishing Company)
The Saturday Evening Post
Order
World Book of America’s Presidents, Vol. 1: The President’s World (1982, World Book Encyclopedia)
World Book Staff
Order
World Book of America’s Presidents, Vol. 2: Portraits of the Presidents (1982, World Book Encyclopedia)
World Book Staff
Order
The History of the American Presidency (1998, JG Press)
John Bowman
Order
The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents, Fifth Edition (2002, Gramercy Books)
William A. DeGregorio
Order
Presidential Factbook (1999, Random House)
Joseph Nathan Kane
Order
Life and Death of James A. Garfield (1881, J.S. Ogilvie & Company)
J.S. Ogilvie
(I found this in an antique shop in Georgetown, Texas; it’s a first edition copy from 1881 that was rushed into print immediately after President Garfield died of wounds suffered in an assassination attempt. At 130 years old, this is my oldest book by a good 40 years)
Looking For Lincoln: The Making of an American Icon (2008, Knopf)
Philip B. Kunhardt, III/Peter W. Kunhardt/Peter W. Kunhardt, Jr.
Order
The Vantage Point: Perspectives of the Presidency, 1963-1969 (1971, Holt, Rinehart and Winston)
Lyndon Baines Johnson
Order
Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1961-1973 (1998, Oxford University Press)
Robert Dallek
Order
A Very Human President (1975, Norton)
Jack Valenti
Order
The Triumph & Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson: The White House Years (1991, Simon & Schuster)
Joseph A. Califano, Jr.
Order
Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream (1991, St. Martin’s Griffin)
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Order
Reaching For Glory: Lyndon Johnson’s Secret White House Tapes, 1964-1965 (2001, Simon & Schuster)
Edited by Michael Beschloss
Order
The Path To Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 1 (1990, Vintage)
Robert Caro
Order
Means of Ascent: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 2 (1991, Vintage)
Robert Caro
Order
Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 3 (2003, Vintage)
Robert Caro
Order
LBJ: The White House Years (1990, Abrams)
Harry Middleton
Order
Mathew Brady (2004, JG Press)
Barry Pritzker
Order
Twenty Days (1993, Castle Books)
Dorothy Meserve Kunhardt and Philip B. Kunhardt, Jr.
Order
Franklin Pierce, Volume I: New Hampshire’s Favorite Son (Hardcover) (2004, Plaidswede Publishing)
Peter A. Wallner
Order
Franklin Pierce, Volume II: Martyr For The Union (Hardcover) (2007, Plaidswede Publishing)
Peter A. Wallner
Order
Franklin Pierce, Volume I: New Hampshire’s Favorite Son (Paperback) (2004, Plaidswede Publishing)
Peter A. Wallner
Order
Franklin Pierce, Volume II: Martyr For The Union (Paperback) (2007, Plaidswede Publishing)
Peter A. Wallner
Order
When The Cheering Stopped: The Last Years of Woodrow Wilson (1982, Time-Life Books)
Gene Smith
Order
Write It When I’m Gone: Remarkable Off-the-Record Conversations with Gerald R. Ford (2007, Putnam)
Thomas M. DeFrank
Order
Jefferson: Writings (1984, The Library of America)
The Library of America
Order
Hail to the Chiefs: Presidential Mischief, Morales, & Malarkey from George W. to George W. (2003, The Permanent Press)
Barbara Holland
Order
The Thirty-First of March: An Intimate Portrait of Lyndon Johnson’s Final Days In Office (2005, Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Horace Busby
Order
My Brother Lyndon (1970, Cowles Book Company)
Sam Houston Johnson (edited by Enrique Hank Lopez)
Order
The Death of a President: November 1963 (1967, Harper & Row)
William Manchester
Order
The Making of the President, 1960 (1961, Atheneum Publishers)
Theodore H. White
Order
The Making of the President, 1964 (1965, Atheneum Publishers)
Theodore H. White
Order
The Making of the President, 1972 (1973, Atheneum Publishers)
Theodore H. White
Order
jasoncomesalive Asks:
deadpresidents Said:
First of all, everyone should have a copy of Lincoln’s writings. I have Da Capo Press’s Lincoln: His Writings, edited by Roy P. Basler.
Here’s a quick list of my suggested Lincoln books:
Lincoln: His Speeches and Writings
The Sword of Lincoln by Jeffry D. Wert (Book)
The Sword of Lincoln by Jeffry D. Wert (Kindle)
Lincoln by David Herbert Donald (Book)
Honor’s Voice: The Transformation of Abraham Lincoln by Douglas L. Wilson (Book)
Honor’s Voice: The Transformation of Abraham Lincoln by Douglas L. Wilson (Kindle)
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin (Book)
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin (Kindle)
Reelecting Lincoln: The Battle For The 1864 Presidency by John C. Waugh (Book)
Reelecting Lincoln: The Battle For The 1864 Presidency by John C. Waugh (Kindle)
I also highly recommend Gore Vidal’s novel, Lincoln:
gobshitemusings Asks:
deadpresidents Said:
Thanks for the recommendation.
It does sound like a deeper work of fiction and that might capture my attention better. If I ever get a solid stretch where I don’t have any books on my agenda (particularly any books that I am supposed to review), I may solicit suggestions from readers for fiction titles that I should check out. That probably won’t happen for a while because my reading calendar is pretty booked for the foreseeable future.
I am always paying attention to suggestions, however.
americanjezebel Asks:
My question: Do you know any good books about the Vietnam War in general, or LBJ + the Vietnam War? I'm reading "Where the Domino Fell" for class and I'm interested in reading more.
deadpresidents Said:
Thank you.
There are so many great books about Vietnam that I would fail to mention too many of them if I tried. Instead, I’ll let my readers suggest their favorites in the comments or replies to this answer.
I will suggest one book in particular about LBJ and Vietnam. That book is General H.R. McMaster’s Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam. It is critical of President Johnson, but it’s also a very deeply-researched study by a military man about how military leaders, the Pentagon, and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara failed LBJ with the information that they presented him about Vietnam.
That last answer included short excerpts from Bob Greene’s wonderful book Fraternity: A Journey In Search of Five Presidents (2004, Crown). I’ve mentioned it many times, but Fraternity is my all-time favorite book about the Presidents or the Presidency. It’s an intimate look at a few of the men who have become President and Bob Greene asks them questions that I would have asked them in order to find out what it felt like to be President. It’s not heavy into politics or facts; it’s an easy read that I have been in love with since the moment I first picked it up.
I reviewed Fraternity a few years ago, and my feelings then echo my feelings now.
If you don’t take any of my other suggestions, get this book and read it and treasure it like I do.
It’s available right here in hardcover.
You can even pick it up instantly right here for your Kindle.
papervoiced Asks:
deadpresidents Said:
Thank you very much.
I’m sure that there are individual biographies about Abigail Adams, but I definitely recommend Joseph J. Ellis’s First Family. It’s a must-read and probably the best book ever written about the Adams Family. I reviewed it last year when it released.
—Books mentioned in this post—
First Family: Abigail and John Adams by Joseph J. Ellis (Hardcover)
First Family: Abigail and John Adams by Joseph J. Ellis (Kindle version)
itsallsemanticsdude Asks:
I am currently researching JFK and his foreign policy (with regard to the Soviet Union, Cuba, Missile Crisis etc) and I wondered if you could recommend any authors or specific books/articles that might be helpful? I have Peter Knight's 'The Assassination of John F. Kennedy' and Robert Dallek's 'An Unfinished Life' to gain insight into the man himself. Apart from Ted Sorensen, I wondered if you know of anything worthwhile to read on the subject of his foreign policy?
Thank you!
deadpresidents Said:
Thank you for the kind comments.
You’re on the right track with the books you mentioned about the subject you’re studying, particularly Dallek’s An Unfinished LIfe and Ted Sorensen’s Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History. JFK’s foreign policy is also examined closely in President Kennedy: Profile of Power by Richard Reeves; Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis by Robert F. Kennedy; A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.; and the thrilling The Kennedy Tapes: Inside the White House During the Cuban Missile Crisis, which contains the transcribed tapes of White House meetings during that tense time.
—Books mentioned in this post—
An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963
Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History
A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House
President Kennedy: Profile of Power
Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis
The Kennedy Tapes: Inside the White House during the Cuban Missile Crisis
swini Asks:
deadpresidents Said:
Not only would I give you the green light on Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents, but I encourage you to ignore all speed limits and get at that book as soon as possible. Richard Neustadt was one of the founding fathers of Presidential Historians. Neustadt’s work helped establish Presidential History as a specific, genuine, specialized field of study. Neustadt also saw the Presidency in action as he was an aide to President Truman and advised JFK, LBJ, and Bill Clinton from time-to-time. Neustadt passed away in 2003, but his work lives on. I highly recommend Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents.
—Books mentioned in this post—
Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents: The Politics of Leadership from Roosevelt to Reagan
somewisdom Asks:
deadpresidents Said:
I have read Team of Rivals, but I never reviewed it. If I ever get ahead of myself with my book reviews and have some free time, I may go back and review some older books that I’ve previously read but never written my opinion on.
Team of Rivals is an amazing work which is not only a good history of Lincoln’s Presidency, but a great illustration of Lincoln’s brilliance as a politician. People always see Lincoln as that almost-mythical figure who is literally a monument and often perceived as such. It’s always fascinating to look deeper into the story and see that he was a clever, sometimes cutthroat politician who either outsmarted his opponents or completely steamrolled them.
Besides Team of Rivals, Doris Kearns Goodwin has written some other fantastic books about Presidents including No Ordinary Time — the dual biography of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1995, The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys: An American Saga, and the best, most revealing book ever written about LBJ — 1976’s Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream.
—Books mentioned in this post—
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II
luxetveritas94 Asks:
deadpresidents Said:
I really like Lou Cannon’s biographies, Governor Reagan: His Rise To Power and President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime, and the Richard Reeves biography, President Reagan: Triumph of Imagination.
Some people disregard the Edmund Morris biography, Dutch, because Morris was chosen as Reagan’s official biographer and because Morris employed a unique narrative style, but I loved that book — mostly because I think Edmund Morris is a genius.
—Books mentioned in this post—
Governor Reagan: His Rise To Power by Lou Cannon
President Reagan: The Role Of A Lifetime by Lou Cannon
President Reagan: The Triumph of Imagination by Richard Reeves
badcommunication Asks:
deadpresidents Said:
Walter R. Borneman (the author of the fantastic 1812: The War That Forged A Nation) wrote the best book that has ever been published about James K. Polk. Borneman’s book, published in 2008, is called Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America. I highly recommend Polk (and while we’re at it, I highly recommend Borneman’s 1812, too.)
I know that Robert W. Merry also recently published a book about President Polk called A Country of Vast Designs: James K. Polk, the Mexican War and the Conquest of the American Continent. I have not read Mr. Merry’s book, but I’ve heard good things about it.
—Books mentioned in this post—
Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America by Walter R. Borneman
1812: The War That Forged a Nation (P.S.) by Walter R. Borneman
