Ron Chernow’s Grant is a long yet readable, well-rounded biography of the 18th president of the United States. Ulysses S. Grant remains one of the best yet underrated American presidents. A perennial underdog, Grant was filled with failures, missteps, and terrible judgement of character. Yet
A. Scott Berg’s Wilson is a comprehensive biography by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Berg. Heavily referenced and loaded with minute detail, Wilson is highly readable and quite balanced. As a great historian should do, A. Scott Berg does a great job for the most part
A. Lincoln is a large biography that reads like a novel. Despite being a lifelong Illinois resident (the Land of Lincoln), this is the first biography of the 16th U.S. President that I’ve read. While this book is not the most extensive bio of Lincoln,
As a naturalist Theodore Roosevelt stands alone among U.S. presidents. The book The Naturalist: Theodore Roosevelt and the Triumph of American Natural History covers the life of the 26th President through the lens of a naturalist. Author Darrin Lunde is a museum collector and so
John Adams is best known as the first Vice President and the second President of the United States of America. However, he was much much more. Master historian David McCullough’s John Adams was published in 2001 and earned the Pulitzer Prize in Biography or Autobiography.