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

Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief

James M. McPherson · 340 pages

James McPherson, a bestselling historian of the Civil War, illuminates how Lincoln worked with—and often against— his senior commanders to defeat the Confederacy and create the role of commander in chief as we know it. Though Abraham Lincoln arrived at the White House with no previous military experience (apart from a couple of months spent soldiering in 1832), he quickly established himself as th

Grant: A Biography

William S. McFeely · 608 pages

The story of the Ohioan who became the leader of the Union Army and later the president.

American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant

Ronald C. White Jr. · 845 pages

In his time, Ulysses S. Grant was routinely grouped with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln in the "Trinity of Great American Leaders." But the battlefield commander–turned–commander-in-chief fell out of favor in the twentieth century. In American Ulysses, Ronald C. White argues that we need to once more revise our estimates of him in the twenty-first. Based on seven years of research with prim

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

Grant

Jean Edward Smith · 781 pages

"Ulysses S. Grant was the first four-star general in the history of the United States Army and the only president between Andrew Jackson and Woodrow Wilson to serve eight consecutive years in the White House. As general in chief, Grant revolutionized modern warfare. Rather than capture enemy territory or march on Southern cities, he concentrated on engaging and defeating the Confederate armies in

Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever

Bill O'Reilly, Martin Dugard · 324 pages

This book is a riveting historical narrative of the heart-stopping events surrounding the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and the first work of history from mega-bestselling author Bill O'Reilly. The anchor of The O'Reilly Factor recounts one of the most dramatic stories in American history -- how one gunshot changed the country forever. In the spring of 1865, the bloody saga of America's Civil

1776

David McCullough · 393 pages

In this masterful book, David McCullough tells the intensely human story of those who marched with General George Washington in the year of the Declaration of Independence -- when the whole American cause was riding on their success, without which all hope for independence would have been dashed and the noble ideals of the Declaration would have amounted to little more than words on paper. Based

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

Doris Kearns Goodwin · 916 pages

Acclaimed historian Doris Kearns Goodwin illuminates Lincoln's political genius in this highly original work, as the one-term congressman and prairie lawyer rises from obscurity to prevail over three gifted rivals of national reputation to become president. On May 18, 1860, William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, Edward Bates, and Abraham Lincoln waited in their hometowns for the results from the R

The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War

H.W. Brands · 480 pages

"From master storyteller and historian H.W. Brands, twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, comes the riveting story of how President Harry Truman and General Douglas MacArthur squared off to decide America's future in the aftermath of World War II. At the height of the Korean War, President Harry S. Truman committed a gaffe that sent shock waves around the world. When asked by a reporter about t

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

Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. · 1,087 pages

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

James Madison

Garry Wills, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. · 184 pages

"The eternal conundrum about James Madison - a key framer of the U.S. Constitution, a formidable political figure, and a man of penetrating analytical intellect and tremendous foresight - is why, when he became chief executive, did he steer the ship of state with such an unsteady hand? Why was this man, whose pre- and post-presidential careers contributed so significantly to the future course of A

Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America

Walter R. Borneman · 422 pages

In Polk, Walter R. Borneman gives us the first complete and authoritative biography of a president often overshadowed in image but seldom outdone in accomplishment. James K. Polk occupied the White House for only four years, from 1845 to 1849, but he plotted and attained a formidable agenda: He fought for and won tariff reductions, reestablished an independent Treasury, and, most notably, brought

Martin Van Buren

Ted Widmer, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. · 208 pages

Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship

Jon Meacham · 518 pages

Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times

H.W. Brands, John H. Mayer · 638 pages

The extraordinary story of Andrew Jackson--the colorful, dynamic, and forceful president who ushered in the Age of Democracy and set a still young America on its path to greatness--told by the bestselling author of The First American.The most famous American of his time, Andrew Jackson is a seminal figure in American history. The first "common man" to rise to the presidency, Jackson embodied the s

Washington: The Indispensable Man

James Thomas Flexner · 425 pages

A "distillation" of the author's fourvolume work on the life of the first president of the United States.

Abraham Lincoln

Carl Sandburg · 640 pages

James K. Polk

John Seigenthaler · 208 pages

With Malice Toward None: A Biography of Abraham Lincoln

Stephen B. Oates · 492 pages

A biography of the sixteenth President of the United States, covering both his personal and public life.

The Passage of Power

Robert A. Caro · 712 pages

Pulitizer Prize biographer Robert A. Caro follows Lyndon Johnson through both the most frustrating and the most triumphant periods of his career, describing Johnson's volatile relationship with John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy during the fight they waged for the 1960 Democratic nomination for president, through Johnson's unhappy vice presidency, his assumption to the presidency after Kennedy's assa

Woodrow Wilson: A Biography

John Milton Cooper Jr. · 702 pages

The first major biography of America's twenty-eighth president in nearly two decades, from one of America's foremost Woodrow Wilson scholars.A Democrat who reclaimed the White House after sixteen years of Republican administrations, Wilson was a transformative president--he helped create the regulatory bodies and legislation that prefigured FDR's New Deal and would prove central to governance thro

Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero

Chris Matthews · 448 pages

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

Kate Andersen Brower · 398 pages

Brower draws on a wide array of untapped, candid sources to tell the stories of the ten remarkable women who have defined the role of First Lady of the United States since 1960. From Jackie Kennedy to Michelle Obama, she offers new insights into this privileged group, and shares stories exploring everything from the first ladies political crusades to their rivalries with Washington figures; from t