Our Country's Presidents (People, Places & Discoveries)

by Frank Freidel

Book Overview

Brief biographies of the thirty-eight Presidents. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0870440241
• Release Date: January 1973
• Publisher: Natl Geographic Society
• Length: 278 Pages
• Weight: 2.05 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Our Country's President (G. Washington - LBJ)

George Washington's voice faltered -- he was "unpracticed in . . . civil administration," he said, when he took office in 1789 as the first President of the United States. The new government he led was a gamble, liberty itself at stake.In personal glimpses such as this, OUR COUNTRY'S PRESIDENTS, by Frank Freidel, gives a new depth to figures everyone remembers. It reveals personalities and policies with carefully chosen detail and keen insight."His Accidency" John Tyler rose from his chair to warn the Cabinet he inherited from President Harrison, "I can never consent to being dictated to . . . . I, as President, shall be responsible for my administration." For the first time a Chief Executive had died in office. But "Tyler Too" insisted that the office lived, all its powers as complete as ever, unbrokwn and undying.OUR COUNTRY'S PRESIDENTS shows how men too easily forgotten sustained the pattern of integrity that Washington had set with unfaltering courage.This book presents the men America chose. Its 248 pages contain more than 280 illustrations, 173 of them in color. It appears as the first in the National Geographic Society's new series of Special Publications. Dr. Melville Bell Grosvenor, President and Editor, calls this series "as rich in interest and varied in scope as the Society's magazine itself."

Great overview

The 5-10 page descriptions of our first 40 presidents (the edition I read ended with Ronald Reagan still in office) provide a literally colorful look at America's history. Each description includes the presidential portrait and is accompanied by plentiful photographs and contemporary illustrations. The book is a collection of a 5-part series National Geographic published some years ago and thus the high quality of that publication is included here. Since it covers each president in its less than 300 pages, this is admittedly an overview / introduction to the presidents and does not go into depth on any issues. But given that this was its purpose the book does a fine job. Younger readers will find the pictures and captions get across many of the main points, while older readers can use it as a springboard to seek out more in-depth books focusing on either specific presidents or specific events in America's past.