Click Here To Purchase Failures of the Presidents

Author: Thomas J. Craughwell With M.William Phelps

ISBN: 13: 978-1-59233-299-1: 10:1-59233-299-4

Publisher: Fair Winds Press

Although I am a Canadian, I have to come clean; I have always been more intrigued with American history than my own. And as Americans go to the polls within the next few weeks, Thomas J. Craughwell and M.William Phelps’ Failures Of The Presidents could not have been timelier.

Craughwell has authored more than a dozen books and has written many articles on history, religion, politics, and popular culture for the Wall Street Journal,  American Spectator, and U.S. News & World Report.

Phelps is a journalist, lecturer, and young historian. He has authored over eleven books.

As mentioned in the introduction, “history will always have its say, but many years may pass before it speaks.” Who is to say that George Bush will go down in history as the worst of the presidents? Remember Harry Truman who left the White House in 1953 with a horrendous approval rating of around twenty-two percent. Even Eisenhower snubbed poor Harry when he refused to invite him to the pre-inaugural luncheon at the White House, and then went onto refuse to make the usual courtesy call on the outgoing president and first lady. Amazingly, Ike sat on his derriere in his car outside the White House, waiting for Harry to come to him.

However, thanks to Merle Miller’s 1974 popular tome, Plain Speaking An oral Biography of Harry S. Truman followed by the one-man show Give’em Hell, Harry was now considered to be a “feisty, straight-talking man of the people who fought for his principles, and perhaps was ahead of his time.” In fact, it was Truman who urged Congress to pass a national health insurance program when he asserted: “The health of American children, like their education, should be recognized as a definite responsibility.” Unfortunately, Truman’s proposal had been rejected thanks to the lobby of the American Medical Association.

This is only one example of the many fascinating tales explored in the book pertaining to such Presidents as Washington and the Whiskey Rebellion, Adams and the Alien and Sedition Acts, Jefferson and the Embargo Acts, Jackson and the Trail of Tears, Pierce and the Repeal of the Missouri Compromise, Grant and the attempt to annex Santo Domingo, Cleveland and the Pullman Strike, McKinley and the Spanish-American War, Wilson and the Punitive Expedition into Mexico, Hoover and the Bonus Army, Roosevelt and the Internment of Japanese-Americans, Kennedy and the Bay of Pigs Invasion, Johnson and the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, Nixon and the Bombing of Cambodia, Carter and the Iranian Hostage Crisis and the Energy Crisis, Regan and the Iran-Contra Affair and George W. Bush and the Iraq War.

Craughwell and Phelps’ portraits of these Presidents are spellbinding and brilliantly organized, written in a nifty, appealing style that balances fact with amusement.

Their research is very well documented and far ranging with compelling studies and anecdotes to remind us how our perceptions are transformed when all of the hysteria and hyperbole settles down. Moreover, the authors steer clear of political preconceived notions or interpretations, presenting these historical figures and events with factual detail. And to wrap the book up in a way that is pleasing to the eye, the text is combined with some incredible images that have been borrowed from such collections as the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, the Library of Congress, Lydon Baines Johnson Library and Museum, New York Public Library, Ronald Regan Presidential Library, the U.S. National Archives as well as some others.

Click Here To Purchase Failures of the Presidents

The above review was contributed by: The Publisher & Editor of Bookpleasures.com, Norm Goldman, B.A. LL.L, Retired Title Attorney: Norm is also a travel writer and together with his artist wife, Lily, the couple meld Norm's words with Lily's art. To check out their travel site click on Sketchandtravel.com   Click here to view Norm’s Reviews & Interviews.