My thoughts after reading biographies of the first 41 presidents
In 2020 I was gifted a copy of David McCullough's John Adams. That gift sent me on a 5 year journey where I read a biography of every president from Washington to Bush Sr. Below I will be listing out my thoughts in various categories. I am not going to list out every book I read but if you want to know what I read for a specific president I will list them below.
I would like to thank the guy who runs the bestpresidentialbios.com website who did all of the hard work of filtering out which biographies were the "best", I didn't 100% follow his advice but I used his list heavily.
1. Overall Thoughts
- My knowledge of American history was probably higher than average going into this project but if anything, reading all of these biographies has made me realize how much I do not know. There is too much for any one person to truly be an expert on more than one or two very specific areas. With how complex the federal government became going into the 20th century, I don't even feel like I have a good handle on cabinet members and the goals of every administration (I stopped trying to memorize vice presidents in the 1820s).
- I also believe that American politics with very few exceptions have always been as polarized as they are right now. We live in the unfortunate era of the 24 hour news cycle and rage baiting to optimize clicks but there were several times, even going back to elections in the early 1800s where the opposing party basically said: "the world is going to end if THAT guy is elected". There was no "pure" era of politics no matter what people who romanticize the founding era say. it was always vitriolic and spiteful and full of lies and half truths. In fact, it is almost comforting to know that politics really have not changed at all in 250 years, it's just the technology that has made things seem worse.
- Putting any president on a pedestal is a bad idea. Most of our presidents were not great people. That is just the unfortunate truth. Some of the worst people became the best presidents and some of the worst presidents were the best people. John Quincy Adams and Jimmy Carter come to mind as great men but bad presidents. A solid half of the presidents cheated on their wives at some point during their lives and most of them were bad fathers who prioritized their careers over their wives and children. I felt like I got the most out of each biography when I set aside any preconceived notion I had about the subject. I can respect the founders while acknowledging the bad they did, I can appreciate what Woodrow Wilson tried to do while also being apposed to the bad. No president is black and white good vs Evil (except Lincoln and Johnson).
- Any Biography written less than 30 years after a president is in office is essentially useless. The long term policy effects of a president really aren't obvious until that far down the road. With pre-20th century presidents I leaned towards more recent biographies as there have been several instances of presidential letters and documents being discovered in a trunk in some random descendant's attic. I also noticed the tone of a biography being different for authors that lived through their subject's presidency vs those viewing them from a purely historical lense.
2. The Best (Most interesting) Presidents
While there are a few "hidden gem" presidents, for the most part, the presidents you have heard the most about have the best/most interesting biographies. Washington, Jackson, Lincoln, Both Roosevelts lived incredibly interesting and historically significant lives. Their biographies attracted the best writers and thus they had some of the best biographies. Presidents that had exciting pre/post presidencies were also interesting to read about, especially Teddy, Eisenhower, Grant, Jefferson.
The underappreciated presidents for me mostly came from the Gilded Age (hence my flair). Hayes, Arthur, Garfield, Cleveland, lived in a time period that I knew almost nothing about. Through their biographies I became a lot more interested in them and their era. Chester Arthur's interactions with Julia Sand was a huge highlight for me and I was fascinated by their relationship.
I would also like to mention Robert Caro's LBJ series, it is easily the most thorough and engrossing biographies I have had the pleasure of reading. LBJ proved to be one of the most complicated people I have ever read about. I hated him, pitied him, and respected him. Caro is truly the gold standard for biographies and he stands head and shoulders above the others I read (yes that includes Chernow and McCullough).
3. The Worst (Least interesting) Presidents
It is hard to tell where the blame truly lies for the boring biographies. Obviously over the 50+ books I read there were bound to be some duds. I just don't know if it is because the subject of the biography was boring or the author just didn't try to make it interesting. The biographies I enjoyed the least were Van Buren, Zachary Taylor, and Benjamin Harrison. These guys also did have less to choose from compared to someone like Washington so maybe the best biography of them has yet to be written.
4. Surprises
Now these are very me specific. I had my preconceived ideas of which presidents I liked and which I didn't going into this. I will list out below what surprised me:
- FDR is significantly over hated by the right. You can dislike some of the things that he did but ultimately the options were a progressive president who tried to stop the depression (with mixed results) or a fascist or socialist revolt. While I don't agree with everything he did, I can appreciate how he brought the country together. There is a reason he is considered one of the best and was grieved by both sides when he died. The timeline where Hoover beat FDR would end up a lot darker than the one we live in.
- Nixon was surprisingly complex and over hated for Watergate. Yeah I know "blah blah blah he ruined the image of the president" That image wasn't even real anyway. Eisenhower, JFK and LBJ did just as much as Nixon did but Nixon got caught. He shouldn't have tried to cover it up. I'm not saying I love the guy I just think he was a good president and had a good vision for the country.
- Reagan is over hated by the left and significantly overrated by the right. I was surprised by how much I disliked him as a person. This is coming from someone with a conservative background as well. Symbolically I think he was what that 80s needed but I felt like his ideas were more based in wishful thinking rather than fact. Where Nixon was an unlikable person but a genius politician with a vision, Reagan was incredibly likable with weak unrealistic policy. I do think blaming Reagan for almost 50 years of economic and social turmoil is absolutely ridiculous. It's the equivalent of republicans still saying "thanks Obama" in 2055
5. What's next?
There are a few presidents that I would like to revisit. I would like to read through Dumas Malone's 6 part Jefferson series as I had only read The Art of Power by Jon Meacham and I felt like I missed a lot on his life. I would also Like to dig deeper into FDR and Nixon when I get the chance. I am hoping that an unbiased comprehensive Clinton Biography will be released in the next few years but I may have to wait a while for that. I am also crossing my fingers that 92 year old Robert Caro finishes his 5th and final LBJ book before he passes.
As for big projects I plan on reading through the Oxford History of The United States to supplement my presidential knowledge.
6. Any Questions?
To those of you who read through this I appreciate it! Let me know if you have any questions.