Free Downloads The Presidents Club: Inside The World's Most Exclusive Fraternity
The New York Times bestselling history of the private relationships among the last thirteen presidents—the partnerships, private deals, rescue missions, and rivalries of those select men who served as commander in chief.The Presidents Club, established at Dwight Eisenhower’s inauguration by Harry Truman and Herbert Hoover, is a complicated place: its members are bound forever by the experience of the Oval Office and yet are eternal rivals for history’s favor. Among their secrets: How Jack Kennedy tried to blame Ike for the Bay of Pigs. How Ike quietly helped Reagan win his first race in 1966. How Richard Nixon conspired with Lyndon Johnson to get elected and then betrayed him. How Jerry Ford and Jimmy Carter turned a deep enmity into an alliance. The unspoken pact between a father and son named Bush. And the roots of the rivalry between Clinton and Barack Obama. Time magazine editors and presidential historians Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy offer a new and revealing lens on the American presidency, exploring the club as a hidden instrument of power that has changed the course of history.
Paperback: 656 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster; Reprint edition (February 12, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1439127727
ISBN-13: 978-1439127728
Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1.1 x 9.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (957 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #33,443 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #81 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > United States > Executive Branch #135 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Historical > United States > US Presidents #173 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Leaders & Notable People > Presidents & Heads of State
The President's Club is a refreshingly different kind of read. There are plenty of Presidential biographies. This book is not about Presidential accomplishments. It is not also about post-presidential accomplishments, such as the well know Clinton Global Initiative (CGI, as it is known). Rather this book explores the relationships between current Presidents and e-Presidents. i.e. how did ex-Presidents partner with current ones. Very well written with fun and telling anecdotes. As I read through this list starting from Truman's Presidency through to Obama, I thought it would be fun to subjectively rate some of these relationships:Best: Hoover helping Truman get food supplies to 100 million starving Europeans after WWII (wow!)Second best: Nixon helping Clinton deal with Yelstin. This is a really cool story!Worst: Jimmy Carter annoying pretty much everybodyDelicious: Johnson and Nixon trying to outfox each otherMost fun anecdote: Reagan teaching Clinton how to salute.If one is interested in Presidential history, this is a new and refreshing angle on this well worn path.
The Presidents Club is a must read for anyone that is truly interested in the fine line that exists with current Presidents and their successors. It opens the chapters of history from a perspective that is seldom seen by the general public.Exciting -- The book is an easy read that keeps the reader engaged as the authors tell the narrative of Presidential interaction. From Hoover to Obama the dynamics are shaped by the most powerful men in the world. From ego's to self-empathy the authors tell the real life history of how the club has grown and shrunk over the last 50 years.Credible - Well sourced and full of citing the authors took the job seriously and gave readers insights only found by scouring thousands and thousands of pages of Presidential materialInsightful - Discover how Hoover was a tremendous help at the end of WWII. Put yourself in President Reagan's post-presidential office as he teaches another President how to salute.Perception Changing - The book opened this readers eyes to the decisions that Presidents have to make. Foreign Policy rules the land and I would bet each of us are hard pressed to ever look at our leaders through the same lens as we did before reading this book.
Looking for a great book that combines the best and worst qualities of leaders during challenging times? I just started The Presidents Club and can't put it down. Working in the White House is a different world. Wonder what it's like to be in the most exclusive fraternity in the world? This book might offend people on both sides of the political spectrum but entertain all. It reminds us all that Presidents are still people and how they deal with crushing pressure could be a lesson for us all.
It has often been said that the United States Senate is the world's most exclusive club with its one hundred members, but as Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy point out in their excellent new book, "The Presidents Club", living former U.S. presidents have it hands down on exclusivity. This is one club about which we have heretofore known very little, but with a flourish, the authors reveal quite a mosaic.Beginning with Harry Truman's "rehabilitation" of Herbert Hoover shortly after Truman assumed the presidency in 1945, current and former holders of the office have formed some of the most fascinating relationships borne out of many factors. Truman needed expertise on European relief after the Second World War so he turned to Hoover, who had made a name for himself doing the same after World War I. In turn they became friends, something that would happen often to presidents, especially of opposing parties.We get more than a glimpse of super egos needing to be wanted and stroked. There are "gentlemanly" ex-presidents and "rogue" ones as well. They're kind of like a big family...often colliding with one another, making up afterwards, only to set off on another crash course along the way. A wonderful contribution of this book is the summaries of presidential discussions, leaving the reader with the wonder of how fragile these men are. All of them. Some chapters are better than others. Nixon's manipulation of LBJ is juicy, as is the drama that played out between Ford and Reagan...not only at the 1976 GOP convention but at the one four years later, too. And there's Jimmy Carter going way out of bounds on a trip to North Korea to the utter dismay of Bill Clinton.Without much knowledge of conversations between Bush father and son, that particular chapter dissolves into psychobabble and is the least interesting one of the book. Added to that, Nixon takes over the central chapters so much so that by the time of his passing, I was ready to move onto others...(Nixon, of course, deserves more than his share of attention). "The Presidents Club" covers a lot of territory and uncovers many things about our presidents which we didn't know. I recommend the book to other potential readers.
Anyone - Democrat or Republican - with an interest in the workings of the Presidency will find this a fascinating read. Sides of past presidents will be revealed that you hadn't known existed. It's an equally-interesting book when you take into account that even what is written about only scratches the surface, as ex-Presidents will only reveal so much.I prefer not to list certain portions of a book like this that I really liked, as I know how much I like to avoid seeing even trivial "spoilers" - but rest assured, this is an account saturated with highly educational information.
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