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Since the board is talking Presidents...

PostPosted: Fri Nov 09, 2012 4:03 am
by vagabond
What are the best US Presidential biographies?

Re: Since the board is talking Presidents...

PostPosted: Wed Nov 14, 2012 4:42 pm
by Sri Lanky
Anything about JFK.

Re: Since the board is talking Presidents...

PostPosted: Fri Nov 16, 2012 2:44 am
by vagabond
Eh, no JFK for me. I'm under 30 so I've been inundated w/ about every portrayal and story of JFK and his clan and find them all sort of tiresome.

I'm thinking something more like the Teddy Roosevelt trilogy by Edmunds Morris. Is that worth the time investment? He seems like an interesting cat but I know very little more than the bold headline stuff.

I also feel like there's a black hole in my knowledge of the Founders, even Thomas Jefferson. I had to read a great book about John Adams for a Revolutionary War class in college. Or maybe it would be worthwhile just to read their own papers (which seem available by Library of America).

Re: Since the board is talking Presidents...

PostPosted: Wed Nov 28, 2012 1:35 am
by Vincent
The best of the Teddy Roosevelt trilogy was Theodore Rex, followed by teh first book. I found the final book, Colonel Roosevelt really dragged when it got bogged down in the 1912 race and the building of the Progressive Party.

I want to read American Sphinx, about Thomas Jefferson and a similar history book, but not Presidential that was OUTSTANDING was Undaunted Courage, about the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Not actual non-fiction, but a great read on the founding fathers was Burr by Gore Vidal. Definitely a book with a point of view, but a very interesting take.