Review
The cover showing the Father of Our Country with egg on his face may lead readers to think they re in for a romp, but this is, in fact, a serious journey, handsomely illustrated, providing narratives on 20 episodes of presidential failure. In the introduction, the authors explain why Bill Clinton is not included, impeachment notwithstanding, while both Bushes are, and it makes sense. The writing offers accessible pathways through the thicket of American history, but signposts like Tricky Dick remind us that there s some attitude here. There are also details that get lost along the way. Still, the results are a good bet for school and public libraries --Library Journal
The book's interesting cover is enough to grab your attention. But the interest doesn't stop there. Failures of the Presidents is a quick witted, sarcastic, informative and entertaining look at some of the greatest Presidents' not so great moments.Though many of the vignettes within the book are familiar only to those that study the subject, the authors do a great job of bringing the reader up to speed quickly so that the context of the chapter is not lost. The book is meant to be read by everyone. The writing style is well suited for a quick, fun read. Filled with clever comparisons and sarcastic wit, Failures of the Presidents brings a sense of humor to what is usually a more serious subject. But don't let the cover or the clever writing fool you... there are some serious issues addressed. In all, 20 presidents are highlighted... each a story of its own, making this a great book of short reads. But it is much, much more than one of those quick facts, "Did you know?" type of books many of us get suckered into browsing at the book store. This has some meat. The images in the book make it great for the coffee table, not to mention the conversation piece the cover can become. It's not often that history books give you pictures to ponder while reading... but the coffee table style of this book is a very welcome deviation to the common history book...US History blog...From the Bay of Pigs to lipstick on a pig, our presidents (and presidential candidates) have surely presented their share of political bloopers. Take, for instance, The Father of Our Country. As if being the first President wasn t pressure enough, George Washington agreed to a tax on whiskey which led to unrest in the backwoods of the newborn United States. Citizens were literally up in arms over a fee on their booze, and they rebelled. Though the wildly unpopular law was on the books until Thomas Jefferson s presidency, it was common knowledge that anyone who tried to collect the tax would meet with violence. Men, in fact, who attempted collection found themselves covered in tar and feathers. Understandably, nobody wanted to venture forth with his hand open.Oopsie on Mr. Washington.In the early years of the Depression, when homeless, unemployed families pitched tents on the grass in Washington D.C., President Herbert Hoover authorized Major General Douglas MacArthur to clear out the squatters. Almost immediately after the orders were sent, Hoover had second thoughts and tried to pull MacArthur back. Whoops. It didn t work. Tear gas flew, tents burned, and in the end, Hoover was blamed for the melee.George Santayana said that those who can t learn from history are doomed to repeat it, so future presidents should observe Lyndon Johnson s lesson: never lie. Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara fabricated a story they knew would escalate conflict in Vietnam. You know what happened next, but you might not know that it changed the way a president can wage war.Judging from the funny, irreverent cover here, you d perhaps expect a light-hearted book filled with plenty of laughs, right? Nope. 'Failures of the Presidents' is much deeper and drier than you d anticipate by just picking this book up. Authors Thomas J. Craughwell and M. William Phelps include many very serious presidential losses and lack of successes that altered history, changed laws, and redirected the way Americans perceived the office and the men in it. Although I would have appreciated a smidge more humor here, this isn t a bad book. It s just more somber and serious than not. Still, if you re fascinated with politics in this historically-political year, 'Failures of the Presidents' is a definite must-have for your bookshelf. For you, missing this book is a big boo-boo. --vail dot com
The first thing you will notice about this book is the cover, which has George Washington with an egg on his face. While the book starts with this bit of humor, it is a serious attempt to look at the places were the US Presidents have made mistakes and what the consequences of these mistakes are. The authors state they do not want to bash any president and overall, I would say they have succeeded. The book looks at the incidents and their consequences and while where the president had his problems are clear, it is not incendiary. The book is divided into chapters by failure. While some presidents do not appear in this book, most are featured just once (Carter and Nixon both had the pleasure of appearing twice). The division of this book makes it very useful for teachers as each chapter could offer an excellent lesson about the incident and how the president dealt with as well as what went wrong. It would be a great exercise for students to look at a problem facing a US president and how things can go wrong, sometimes even with good intentions. Presidents, just like everyone else, make mistakes in judgment. Each chapter begins with some background material and then the incident is explained in depth. At the end of the chapter, the authors try to wrap up what went wrong and what the long term consequences of it were for the United States. Often incidents are only discussed by the immediate consequences, but this work tries to bring in some long term repercussions, like the precedent set by the internment of the Japanese Americans in the 1940s that could affect us in the era of the Patriot Act. In the introduction, the authors start with the idea of the fifty year rule and how opinion of a president often changes over time. While they begin with this, they certainly do not follow it, instead going all the way to George W. Bush and the current war in Iraq. Since the US is only 200 odd years old, some leeway in the fifty year rule would be understandable, but I think trying to tackle a current administration was not the best decision. The previous chapter, on Reagan and Iran-Contra, is much more acceptable as it is now twenty years in the past and so there is some distance from the incident. Given the authors own comments on how opinion changes over time as well as the very polarized opinion of the war, I think that the authors should have put this chapter on the back burner for a few decades. In their introduction, they also made the case why they left out the Clinton scandal. The authors argue that the Clinton scandals, while embarrassing, were not damaging to the United States. I would argue that they should have been left out, just not for the reasons they mention. I think they should have left it out because it is too recent. I do think we are starting to see some repercussions from this, but I m going to put them on hold for another decade (I am being good here on heeding my own advice). My final criticism of this book is that there are no in text citations. In my opinion, all research-based works need to have in text citations. The authors do provide some suggested reading at the end, organized by chapter and that is certainly helpful, but simply not enough. While this book is intended for a wider audience than historians, it should still have citations. All that said, some of the chapters are exceedingly well done (I especially liked the chapters on the Pullman Strike and the attempt to annex Santo Domingo) and provide excellent fodder for historical discussion. I found the middle chapters n lesser known presidents and incidents to be the most interesting and useful. Some of the topics (Watergate certainly) have been overdone, but some of these earlier topics are due for some redress. While the well versed presidential reader will enjoy the book, I see it as most useful to the novice --american residents blog
Product Description
Stories of the disastrous blunders of American presidents will show readers the inner workings of the White House and how some of our greatest leaders could make decisions that were terribly wrong. The fascinating stories are recounted as narratives and are as entertaining as they are shocking. The 25 30 stories, each about 10 pages in length, retell the histories behind bad presidential decisions. They are told in a real time narrative style, bringing readers inside the White House, introducing them to the main characters, exposing why these decisions were made, and describing the ill-fated aftermaths.
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