Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America 1789-1989
Michael R. Beschloss





Format: Paperback, 448pp.
ISBN: 9780743257442
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Pub. Date: February 5, 2008

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Description and Reviews
From The Publisher:

From the acclaimed bestselling author of The Conquerors

Michael Beschloss has brought us a brilliantly readable and inspiring saga about crucial times in America's history when a courageous President dramatically changed the future of the United States.

With surprising new sources and a dazzling command of history and human character, Beschloss brings to life these flawed, complex men -- and their wives, families, friends and foes. Never have we had a more intimate, behind-the-scenes view of Presidents coping with the supreme dilemmas of their lives.

You will be in the room with the private George Washington, braving threats of impeachment and assassination to make peace with England. John Adams, incurring his party's "unrelenting hatred" by refusing to fight France and warning his enemies, "Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war." Andrew Jackson, in a death struggle against the corrupt Bank of the United States. Abraham Lincoln, risking his Presidency to insist that slaves be freed.

Beschloss also shows us Theodore Roosevelt, taunting J. P. Morgan and the Wall Street leaders who dominated his party. Franklin Roosevelt, defying the isolationists -- and maybe the law -- to stop Adolf Hitler. Harry Truman, risking a walkout by top officials to recognize a Jewish state. John Kennedy, the belated champion of civil rights, complaining that he has cost himself a second term. And finally, two hundred years after Washington, Ronald Reagan, irking some of his oldest backers to seek an end to the Cold War.

As Beschloss shows in this gripping and important book, none of these Presidents was eager to incur ridicule, vilification or threats of political destruction and even assassination. But in the end, bolstered by friends and family, hidden private beliefs and, sometimes, religious faith, each ultimately proved himself to be, in Andrew Jackson's words, "born for the storm."


About the Author

Michael Beschloss has been called "the nation's leading Presidential historian" by Newsweek. He has written eight books on American Presidents and is NBC News Presidential Historian, as well as contributor to PBS's The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and two sons.


Table of Contents

	Preface	IX
1	A Speedy Death To General Washington!	1
2	Kick This Treaty To Hell!	10
3	The Damnedest Liar	18
4	He May Retire With Undiminish'd Glory	25
5	Rivalries Irritated To Madness	34
6	Oh, That I Was A Soldier!	39
7	Rocks And Quicksands On All Sides	47
8	The Most Splendid Diamond In My Crown	57
9	I Will Kill It!	65
10	Not A Man To Be Forced	71
11	I Was Born For The Storm	77
12	Who Would Have Had The Courage?	86
13	I Am Going To Be Beaten	96
14	Too Angelic For This Devilish Rebellion	103
15	A Well-Meaning Baboon	113
16	The Country Will Be Saved	119
17	I See Dynamite	127
18	Black Storm	136
19	A Rough-and-tumble Man	143
20	I Upset Them All	150
21	We Must Protect The Chief!	157
22	Gloom Personified	166
23	Salute Your Caesar?	172
24	We Have Avoided A Putsch	182
25	No People Except The Hebrews	196
26	The Right Place At The Right Time	204
27	How Could This Have Happened?	211
28	I Am Cyrus!	221
29	They Never Show Their Passion	235
30	go Get Him, Johnny Boy!	244
31	It's Going To Be A Civil War	259
32	A Man Has To Take A Stand	272
33	We Win And They Lose!	280
34	It Left Me Greatly Depressed	289
35	Don't Worry That I've Lost My Bearings	302
36	A Miracle Has Taken Place	313
	Epilogue: Presidential Courage	327
	Notes	331
	Sources	387
	Acknowledgments	409
	Index	411

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