First Women: The Grace and Power of America's Modern First Ladies

His Excellency: George Washington

Joseph J. Ellis · 352 pages

The author of seven highly acclaimed books, Joseph J. Ellis has crafted a landmark biography that brings to life in all his complexity the most important and perhaps least understood figure in American history, George Washington. With his careful attention to detail and his lyrical prose, Ellis has set a new standard for biography.Drawing from the newly catalogued Washington papers at the Universi

Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship

Jon Meacham · 518 pages

No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II

Doris Kearns Goodwin · 759 pages

From the best-selling author of The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys and Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream comes a compelling chronicle of a nation and its leaders during the period when modern America was created. Presenting an aspect of American history that has never been fully told, Doris Kearns Goodwin writes a brilliant narrative account of how the United States of 1940, an isolationist cou

Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation

Cokie Roberts · 359 pages

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Cokie Roberts comes New York Times bestseller Founding Mothers, an intimate and illuminating look at the fervently patriotic and passionate women whose tireless pursuits on behalf of their families–and their country–proved just as crucial to the forging of a new nation as the rebellion that established it. While much has been written about the men who sign

Franklin and Lucy

Joseph E. Persico · 443 pages

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was arguably the greatest figure of the twentieth century. While FDR's official circle was predominantly male, it was his relationships with women--particularly with Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd--that most vividly bring to light the human being beneath this towering statesman. It is no coincidence that Rutherfurd was with Roosevelt the day he died in Warm Springs, Georgia, alon

Washington: A Life

Ron Chernow · 928 pages

In this work, the author, a biographer provides a portrait of the father of our nation, dashing forever the stereotype of a stolid, unemotional man, and revealing an astute and surprising portrait of a canny political genius who knew how to inspire people.

A Country of Vast Designs: James K. Polk, the Mexican War and the Conquest of the American Continent

Robert W. Merry · 576 pages

In a one-term presidency, Polk completed the story of America's Manifest Destiny -- extending its territory across the continent, from sea to sea, by threatening England and manufacturing a controversial and unpopular two-year war with Mexico that Abraham Lincoln, in Congress at the time, opposed as preemptive. Robert Merry tells this story through powerful debates and towering figures. - Jacket f

The Lincolns: A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary

Candace Fleming · 177 pages

Though Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln's backgrounds differed considerably, both were intellectuals who shared interests in literature and politics, as well as a great love for each other.

JFK's Last Hundred Days: The Transformation of a Man and the Emergence of a Great President

Thurston Clarke · 432 pages

JFK's Last Hundred Days reexamines the last months of the President's life to show a man in the midst of great change, finally on the cusp of making good on his extraordinary promise.

President Nixon: Alone in the White House

Richard Reeves · 702 pages

"Who was Richard Nixon? The most amazing thing about the man was not what he did as president, but that he became president. In President Nixon, Richard Reeves has used thousands of new interviews and recently discovered or declassified documents and tapes - including Nixon's tortured memos to himself and unpublished sections of H. R. Haldeman's diaries - to offer a nuanced and surprising portrait

Lincoln

David Herbert Donald · 714 pages

The phenomenal national bestseller that is "the Lincoln biography for this generation" (Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.)-now in paperback. Drawing on resources not available until recently, including Lincoln's personal papers, archives, and newspaper reports, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Herbert Donald presents a masterful account of Lincoln's rise to the presidency and the political and p

My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams

Abigail Adams, John Adams · 528 pages

A collection of letters between Abigail and John Adams written from 1762 to 1801 covering topics of revolution, independence, and nation building, along with those that reflect their love for one another.

John Tyler

Gary May · 183 pages

Traces the events of the tenth executive leader's presidency from his unexpected ascent after the premature death of William Henry Harrison and unpopular veto of a proposed Bank of the United States to his indirect role in promoting secession.

John Adams

David McCullough · 751 pages

In this powerful, epic biography, David McCullough unfolds the adventurous life-journey of John Adams, the brilliant, fiercely independent, often irascible, always honest Yankee patriot who spared nothing in his zeal for the American Revolution; who rose to become the second President of the United States and saved the country from blundering into an unnecessary war; who was learned beyond all but

The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage

Daniel Mark Epstein · 559 pages

The first full-length portrait of the marriage of Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln in more than fifty years, The Lincolns is a fascinating new work of American history by Daniel Mark Epstein, an award-winning biographer and poet known for his passionate understanding of the Civil War period. Although the private lives of political couples have in our era become front-page news, the true story of this

James Monroe: The Quest For National Identity

Harry Ammon · 706 pages

Documents the career of the fifth president noting his contributions to American diplomacy and nationalism. Bibliog.

The Return of George Washington: 1783-1789

Edward J. Larson · 384 pages

From the Publisher... After leading the Continental Army to victory in the Revolutionary War, George Washington shocked the world: he retired. In December 1783, General Washington, the most powerful man in the country, stepped down as Commander in Chief and returned to private life at Mount Vernon. Yet as Washington contentedly grew his estate, the fledgling American experiment floundered. Unde

James K. Polk

John Seigenthaler · 208 pages

Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power

Richard J. Carwardine · 394 pages

An original and deeply insightful biography of Abraham Lincoln, already awarded the prestigious Lincoln Prize.As a defender of national unity, a leader in war, and the emancipator of slaves, Abraham Lincoln lays ample claim to being the greatest of our presidents. But the story of his rise to greatness is as complex as it is compelling. In this superb biography, the highly regarded Oxford Universi

Millard Fillmore: Biography of a President

Robert J. Rayback · 484 pages

For some reason hard to understand, the historically minded public has had to wait 85 years since the death of a president for an adequate biography. This gap has now been filled with Dr. Rayback's authoritative work on Millard Fillmore. It is no eulogy; rather, it is honest and unprejudiced, describing and assaying his defects of judgment such as his leadership of two absurd parties at the beginn

A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House

Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. · 1,087 pages

Jefferson and the Rights of Man

Dumas Malone · 523 pages

Killing Reagan: The Violent Assault That Changed a Presidency

Bill O'Reilly, Martin Dugard · 320 pages

Just two months into his presidency, Ronald Reagan lay near death after a gunman's bullet came within inches of his heart. His recovery was nothing short of remarkable -- or so it seemed. But Reagan was grievously injured, forcing him to encounter a challenge that few men ever face. Could he silently overcome his traumatic experience while at the same time carrying out the duties of the most power

Benjamin Harrison

Charles W. Calhoun · 206 pages

Politics was in Benjamin Harrison's blood. His great-grandfather signed the Declaration of Independence and his grandfather, William Henry Harrison, was the ninth president of the United States. Harrison, a leading Indiana lawyer, became a Republican Party champion, even taking a leave from the Civil War to campaign for Lincoln. After a scandal-free term in the Senate -- no small feat in the Gilde