First blog on US Presidents books

When I informed friends, family and coworkers I am reading a book on every US President, the most common question is why. It creates some interesting conversation. The purpose of this blog to interact with people and have discussions concerning American History. This is my first time blogging and it is very intimidating. Any feedback is appreciated. Here is the story how I started on this journey. I hope you will join me and it will inspire you to do some reading about history.

After the 2016 Presidential election, I found myself asking questions about our country and how we handled political crises. All the Presidents Men seemed like a good place to start. As most of you may know, the book details the Nixon administration handling of the Watergate investigation. Woodward and Bernstein do a masterful job of detailing what transpired after the Watergate break in.

Not sure the reason, my next book was Hamilton. Most know Hamilton as a very successful Broadway musical. Not just a musical, but a hip hop musical about an illegitimate immigrant from the West Indes who became a close confidant George Washington, fought in the Revolutionary War and became a founding father. He became the first Secretary of Treasury and developed our financial system. The book was written by Ron Chernow. More on Ron later as has he wrote two books (Grant and Washington) which I have read. The fact that Lin-Manuel Miranda read this book and was able to create a Broadway musical is unbelievable. That could the topic of an entire other blog. Maybe if I go see Hamilton and become good at this blog thing, I will give my thoughts on Hamilton. After reading Hamilton, I was hooked. I was on a mission to educate my myself on American history. Specifically, the founding fathers and the Presidents.

Next was an obscure book that Ron Chernow references in Hamilton, titled Miracle at Philadelphia. written  by Cather Drinker Brown. The book covers Constitutional Convention in 1787 ultimately leading to ratification in 1789 by the thirteen colonies. The book was eye opening to me. The title sums it up pretty well. It's a miracle this country was founded. North versus South. How to handle slavery. State debts from fighting the Revolutionary War. The branches of government. Presidential powers. How to handle impeachment. At times, in 2019, we take things for granted on how this country was founded. Significant importance has been placed on signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. We even have a national holiday celebrating America's birthday,  Fourth of July. However, the importance of signing of the constitution gets lost.  If these men at the constitutional congress did not push forward, we may be a completely different country or set of countries.

Then I decided to read a book on every US President. Call me crazy. I was on a mission. I found a list from Barnes and Noble titled Ideal Biography on every US President. When reading the list, there we only 44 books listed. I know Trump was the 45th president. I was stumped. How are there 45 presidents but only 44 books. Did B&N mess up? After some quick research, I must not have been paying attention in US History class, Grover Cleveland served two terms. These terms were not consecutive terms. Cleveland is referred to as the 22nd and 24th President. It was a good starting point. I have not stuck to list but overall have been pleased with the recommendations.

To date I have read 4,457 pages. These pages have covered from Washington and his phenomenal leadership to LBJ handling civil rights upheaval and the Vietnam War.

To date, I have read books on the following presidents and author is listed:

• Grant - Chernow
• Washington - Chernow
• John Adams - David McCullough. Currently watching the HBO series based on the book
• Jefferson- Joseph J. Ellis
• Madison - David O. Stewart
• Andrew Jackson - Jon Meacham
• LBJ - Doris Kearns Goodwin
• Eisenhower - Stephen Ambrose
• Currently reading FDR - Jean Edward Smith

My opinion has changed on these men. Sometimes for the better. Sometimes for the worse. Over the coming weeks I will recap the eight books I have read and will blog for the remaining.

Let's get going.