Hail to the Chiefs: Or How to Tell Your Polks from Your Tylers

by Barbara Holland

Book Overview

Told with wit and accuracy, this compendium of highlights and lowlights from the careers of the 43 commander-in-chiefs clearly demonstrates that presidents are people, too. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 034536273X
• ISBN13: 9780345362735
• Release Date: May 1990
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Length: 283 Pages
• Weight: 1.43 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A Wonderful Combination of Humor and Little-Known Fact

My wife and I continually are reminded of these easy-to-digest stories of all our Presidents. Their Amusing and Informative Views of Whitehouse history will stick with you for a long time -- prompting re-reading of many chapters.

One of my favorite books

Well written, laugh-out-loud funny in spots, and decently researched. Holland doesn't portend to shed light on the presidential record as much as she looks to find the quirks and the oddities in each president and first lady to reduce them to our level. By being funny and critical without being pointed "Hail to the Chiefs" will have you lauging, even with its heart in the right place. It's an interesting read to see how American culture changed, yet stayed strangely similar, throughout the different administrations, and how politicians' public persona can be much different from whom they are in public. Great fun!

marvelous, informative, and funny -- but not sarcastic

This is a fabulous book, and I didn't find it the least bit "sarcastic" -- although it was occasionally scathing and often silly. Unlike an earlier reviewer I did not find Holland's comments RE Carter's accent offensive, although I am Southern myself (and consider "ya'll" to be proper English). This book is irreverent, which I think is good, and it does have lots of info. about the Presidents' wives, which I think is even better. Presidential wives have had an enormous if unofficial political influence, and are some of the most salient people in American history. While full of facts and information, "Hail to the Chiefs" is not really serious. The author is witty and has a charming, informal style of writing similar to Will Cuppy -- see "The Decline and Fall of Practically Everyone." A tome this is not, but erudite and entertaining it is.

Richie's Picks: HAIL TO THE CHIEFS

"The main cause of the Revolution, aside from all those Adamses, was the quantity of feisty, short-tempered people on this side of the Atlantic at the time, and the quantity of unusually bossy, fat-headed chumps on the other side, topped by poor George III, who suffered from funny feelings in his head." Sarcastic references to the temperament of John Adams, his relatives, and assorted descendants, which pop up on a regular basis throughout this book, are among the multitude of laugh out loud moments packed into this clever "tell-all" about the lives, wives, dinner parties, dalliances, and various personal difficulties that characterized the forty-three great white leaders who have served as our nation's Chief Executive. "John Adams, back in the beginning of it all, had always felt that the Presidency should be, well, not exactly hereditary, which would be undemocratic, but just naturally reserved for a group of the right sort of families whose sons would be properly educated and trained up for public service, and dedicated to knowing what was best for the rest of us rabble. The idea still hangs around to this day, but at the time some people were upset when Adams's son John Quincy turned up." A book that will delight and reward students who've paid attention in their middle school or high school American History classes, HAIL TO THE CHIEFS had me giggling and snorting page after page. "Grover Cleveland...weighed nearly three hundred pounds and wore an immense walrus mustache with bits of corned beef and cabbage in it. The orator Robert Ingersoll said he could 'slip his collar off over his head without unbuttoning it,' which gives you an idea of his neck, and he had a high squeaky voice and some unrefined personal habits. I've heard that when he was practicing law in Buffalo he couldn't be bothered to go down the hall and relieved himself through his office window, and once a passerby sued."People called him 'the Beast of Buffalo.' He was a bachelor, and no wonder." Footnotes, utilized for cheeky asides, are stacked up at the foot of many of the book's pages: "Andrew Johnson should not be confused with Andrew Jackson. He didn't have Jackson's charm, or anyone else's either. 2 2 The White House staff called him 'The Grim Presence.' " But, beyond the humor, this book provides fascinating stories and information about the Presidents that I have never run across elsewhere. The author notes of James Garfield (1881-1881): "Garfield was tall and handsome and genial and scholarly. He believed that strikers had a right to strike and black men to vote and might have been a historically Good President if he'd stuck around long enough." The author goes on to talk about Garfield's shooting at the hands of a disaffected job-seeker who wanted to be the American consul in Paris: "Everyone thought Garfield was a goner, and [Vice President] Arthur was already testing out the mattresses and deciding which furniture to get rid of, but at four in the morning the Presi

Very funny!

Here's a book that's a lot of fun to read. Breezy, witty and studded with little-known facts about America's illustrious leaders. Holland's delightful style brings each president to life - quirks and all. Most worthwhile, no matter what your politics. A wonderful romp through America's history! I loved the earlier version (ending with Ronald Reagan) and I'm still chortling over this new one. A gem!