US Presidents
April 30, 1789, when George Washington took the oath of office as the first president of the United States to the present — 47 presidencies have led the nation from its violent beginning through turbulent times, near-extinction, world triumph, and long domestic and international challenges. I realized how steadily I sold biographies and histories dealing with the US Presidents, and I thought I would begin on the ambitious project of all the books related to the subject that I stock. Here is the beginning of an ongoing work. I am including the necessary topics of spouses and general administration (not just the individual). Endlessly fascinating to the reader — and apparently inspiring to our best historians.
The listing is chronological, most recent to George Washington top to bottom of the page, with some books on leadership and so forth at the bottom. The most recent President, Donald Trump, is having many books published with political or polemical edges to them. The political books are listed on the Politics & Current Events page. For this page I will strive to select books on Trump that have a historical framework or methodology.
The Notes: Ronald Reagan's Private Collection of Stories and Wisdom
The Notes: Ronald Reagan's Private Collection of Stories and Wisdom
These "notes" were recorded, memorized, and organized by Ronald Reagan as union leader, as Governor and ultimately as President. They comprise a major resource he personally developed on 4x6 note cards with favorite aphorisms, jokes, asides, and timeless nuggets of political wisdom. Before the days of Google, here's how one of our nation's greatest speakers compiled a trove of useful information revealing a fiercely patriotic, pro-democracy avatar of limited government. Edited by Douglas Brinkley.
Publishers Weekly review: “In 2010, researchers at the Reagan Library discovered a box of index cards containing jokes, literary quotes, and excerpts from speeches written in Reagan's own hand and arranged under rubrics such as "On Liberty," "On War," and "On the People." Rice University history professor Brinkley, who also edited The Reagan Diaries, suggests Reagan began collecting these as spokesman for General Electric beginning in 1954 and continuing until his death in 2004. Readers uncertain if Reagan hated taxes ("Justice O. W. Holmes: "Keep govt. poor and remain free") and communism (Pravda: the communist program is "all embracing & all bloodsoaked reality"), or if he loved God, liberty, and the Constitution (Daniel Webster: "if the const. shall fail there will be anarchy throughout the world") will find answers here. Even the jokes show a conservative bent. The squibs are from sources as far-ranging as Dale Carnegie, Solzhenitsyn, G.K. Chesterton, and even Chairman Mao (on marriage).”