Books for Potus Geeks in 2023
As mentioned in an earlier post, this was a slack year for reading for me, something I'm hoping to correct for 2023. I'm always on the lookout for new books for potus_geeks and for the new year, here are six that I'll be looking for next year (some of which I've already pre-ordered.)
1. Hoover vs. Roosevelt: Two Presidents’ Battle over Feeding Europe and Going to War by Hal Elliott Wert: The year begins with the release of this book on New Year's Day. It looks at the Depression election of 1932, when Franklin Roosevelt defeater Herbert Hoover in one of the most lopsided presidential contests in American history and it follows the rivalry that remained. Hoover was opposed the New Deal, and while FDR found Hoover a convenient punching bag in elections throughout the thirties. Hoover as the only living former president of either party, maintained a strong international reputation, thanks to his achievements as an engineer and his efforts during World War I to organize aid for the starving millions of Europe. This book tells the story of how the U.S. entered World War II through as seen in part through the eyes of Herbert Hoover.
2. The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden's White House by Chris Whipple: What's a new year without a book about the contemporary White House? Journalist Chris Whipple looks at how the Biden administration inherited a lethal pandemic, a plummeting economy, an unresolved twenty-year war, as well as the aftermath of an attack on the Capitol that polarized the country. He also examines the crises that followed, including the fallout from a divisive Supreme Court, raging inflation, and Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. Whipple takes the reader inside the Oval Office as the critical decisions of Biden’s presidency are being made. The author appears to have remarkable access to both President Biden and his inner circle-including Chief of Staff Ron Klain, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and CIA Director William Burns as he pulls back the curtain on the internal power struggles and back-room compromises. He also looks at how renegade Trump officials enabled the transfer of power, and why Joe Biden no longer speaks freely around his security detail, and what he really thinks of Vice President Kamala Harris, the press, and living in the White House. This is due to be released on January 17th.
3. The Lincoln Miracle: Inside the Republican Convention That Changed History by Edward Achorn: The author describes how Illinois lawyer Abraham Lincoln went from having had a record of political failure to become the nominee from the Republican National Convention. When the convention opened in mid-May 1860 in Chicago, powerful New York Senator William Seward was the overwhelming favorite for the presidential nomination, with notables like Salmon Chase and Edward Bates in the running. Few thought Lincoln stood a chance-though stubborn Illinois circuit Judge David Davis had a different outcome planned for his friend. This book chronicles the tense political drama that unfolded at the convention and it explores the genius of Lincoln’s quiet strategy, the vicious partisanship tearing apart America, and the fierce battles raging over racism and slavery. This book is due out on Valentine's day.
4. Grant at 200: Reconsidering the Life and Legacy of Ulysses S. Grant edited by Chris Mackowski and Frank Scaturro: A number of books have recently reconsidered the reputation of Ulysses Grant, once assessed as one of the worst presidents, but not reconsidered for his outstanding record on civil rights and opposition to southern racism. Grant finished the war as a lieutenant general in command of the U.S. Army. Four years later, he ascended to the presidency to better secure the peace he had helped win on the battlefield. Despite his major achievements in war and peace, political and sectional enemies have battered his reputation. Grant at 200: Reconsidering the Life and Legacy of Ulysses S. Grant celebrates the bicentennial of the birth of a man whose towering impact on American history has often been overshadowed and, in many cases, ignored. This book contains a collection of essays by some of today’s leading Grant scholars offers fresh perspectives on Grant’s military career and presidency, as well as underexplored personal topics such as his faith and family life. This book is expected to hit the bookshelves on February 15.
5. An Ordinary Man: The Surprising Life and Historic Presidency of Gerald R. Ford by Richard Norton Smith: For many Americans, President Gerald Ford was an accident of history who controversially pardoned his Watergate-tarnished predecessor, and who became a punching bag on Saturday Night Live. Yet as Richard Norton Smith describes, Ford was an underrated leader whose tough decisions and personal decency look better with the passage of time. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and thousands of documents, Smith recreates Ford’s hardscrabble childhood in Michigan, his lifelong love affair with the former Betty Bloomer, and how, as president, Ford guided the nation through its worst Constitutional crisis since the Civil War and broke the back of the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression. Ford's administration bridged the Republican pragmatism of Eisenhower and Nixon and the more doctrinaire conservatism of Ronald Reagan. This book is due out April 11th.
6. President Garfield: From Radical to Unifier by C. W. Goodyear: At last, a book about one of the less popular presidents! C.W. Goodyear charts the life and times of one of the remarkable James Garfield: progressive firebrand and conservative compromiser; Union war hero and founder of the first Department of Education; Supreme Court attorney and abolitionist preacher; mathematician and canal man; crooked election-fixer and clean-government champion; Congressional chieftain and gentleman-farmer; the last president to be born in a log cabin; the second to be assassinated. Over nearly two decades in Congress during a polarized era-Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, Garfield served as a peacemaker in a Republican Party and America defined by divisions. He was elected President to overcome them and was killed while trying to do so. This book is due out on July 4, Independence Day!
Happy reading in 2023 fellow geeks!
1. Hoover vs. Roosevelt: Two Presidents’ Battle over Feeding Europe and Going to War by Hal Elliott Wert: The year begins with the release of this book on New Year's Day. It looks at the Depression election of 1932, when Franklin Roosevelt defeater Herbert Hoover in one of the most lopsided presidential contests in American history and it follows the rivalry that remained. Hoover was opposed the New Deal, and while FDR found Hoover a convenient punching bag in elections throughout the thirties. Hoover as the only living former president of either party, maintained a strong international reputation, thanks to his achievements as an engineer and his efforts during World War I to organize aid for the starving millions of Europe. This book tells the story of how the U.S. entered World War II through as seen in part through the eyes of Herbert Hoover.
2. The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden's White House by Chris Whipple: What's a new year without a book about the contemporary White House? Journalist Chris Whipple looks at how the Biden administration inherited a lethal pandemic, a plummeting economy, an unresolved twenty-year war, as well as the aftermath of an attack on the Capitol that polarized the country. He also examines the crises that followed, including the fallout from a divisive Supreme Court, raging inflation, and Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. Whipple takes the reader inside the Oval Office as the critical decisions of Biden’s presidency are being made. The author appears to have remarkable access to both President Biden and his inner circle-including Chief of Staff Ron Klain, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and CIA Director William Burns as he pulls back the curtain on the internal power struggles and back-room compromises. He also looks at how renegade Trump officials enabled the transfer of power, and why Joe Biden no longer speaks freely around his security detail, and what he really thinks of Vice President Kamala Harris, the press, and living in the White House. This is due to be released on January 17th.
3. The Lincoln Miracle: Inside the Republican Convention That Changed History by Edward Achorn: The author describes how Illinois lawyer Abraham Lincoln went from having had a record of political failure to become the nominee from the Republican National Convention. When the convention opened in mid-May 1860 in Chicago, powerful New York Senator William Seward was the overwhelming favorite for the presidential nomination, with notables like Salmon Chase and Edward Bates in the running. Few thought Lincoln stood a chance-though stubborn Illinois circuit Judge David Davis had a different outcome planned for his friend. This book chronicles the tense political drama that unfolded at the convention and it explores the genius of Lincoln’s quiet strategy, the vicious partisanship tearing apart America, and the fierce battles raging over racism and slavery. This book is due out on Valentine's day.
4. Grant at 200: Reconsidering the Life and Legacy of Ulysses S. Grant edited by Chris Mackowski and Frank Scaturro: A number of books have recently reconsidered the reputation of Ulysses Grant, once assessed as one of the worst presidents, but not reconsidered for his outstanding record on civil rights and opposition to southern racism. Grant finished the war as a lieutenant general in command of the U.S. Army. Four years later, he ascended to the presidency to better secure the peace he had helped win on the battlefield. Despite his major achievements in war and peace, political and sectional enemies have battered his reputation. Grant at 200: Reconsidering the Life and Legacy of Ulysses S. Grant celebrates the bicentennial of the birth of a man whose towering impact on American history has often been overshadowed and, in many cases, ignored. This book contains a collection of essays by some of today’s leading Grant scholars offers fresh perspectives on Grant’s military career and presidency, as well as underexplored personal topics such as his faith and family life. This book is expected to hit the bookshelves on February 15.
5. An Ordinary Man: The Surprising Life and Historic Presidency of Gerald R. Ford by Richard Norton Smith: For many Americans, President Gerald Ford was an accident of history who controversially pardoned his Watergate-tarnished predecessor, and who became a punching bag on Saturday Night Live. Yet as Richard Norton Smith describes, Ford was an underrated leader whose tough decisions and personal decency look better with the passage of time. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and thousands of documents, Smith recreates Ford’s hardscrabble childhood in Michigan, his lifelong love affair with the former Betty Bloomer, and how, as president, Ford guided the nation through its worst Constitutional crisis since the Civil War and broke the back of the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression. Ford's administration bridged the Republican pragmatism of Eisenhower and Nixon and the more doctrinaire conservatism of Ronald Reagan. This book is due out April 11th.
6. President Garfield: From Radical to Unifier by C. W. Goodyear: At last, a book about one of the less popular presidents! C.W. Goodyear charts the life and times of one of the remarkable James Garfield: progressive firebrand and conservative compromiser; Union war hero and founder of the first Department of Education; Supreme Court attorney and abolitionist preacher; mathematician and canal man; crooked election-fixer and clean-government champion; Congressional chieftain and gentleman-farmer; the last president to be born in a log cabin; the second to be assassinated. Over nearly two decades in Congress during a polarized era-Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, Garfield served as a peacemaker in a Republican Party and America defined by divisions. He was elected President to overcome them and was killed while trying to do so. This book is due out on July 4, Independence Day!
Happy reading in 2023 fellow geeks!