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seldo · 5 years ago

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Biographies of every US president as audiobooks

I enjoy reading history, especially in the form of historical biographies. Over the years I've picked up books about several of the founding fathers of the USA, plus major historical figures like FDR, and eventually I realized that I'd covered a big chunk of all the presidents of the USA. So then I went back and decided to fill in all the gaps. I'm currently on president number 37, and will be stopping at number 41.

As I've been reading I started tweeting about fun facts about the presidents as I encountered them. Slowly that evolved into longer and longer threads about each president, and some of those threads were quite popular.

So here for ease of consumption is the full list of presidents I've read, which biography I read, a single sentence on what I thought about that biography and if I recommend it, as well as (where available) a link to the tweet or thread about that president.

If this list format doesn't grab you, it's also available as a spreadsheet. I'll update the sheet and this post as I finish the remaining bios.

#1: George Washington

Washington: A Life, Ron Chernow

Recommended? Yes

Fantastic. Deeply researched, engaging, readable, well paced.

#2: John Adams

John Adams, David McCullough

Recommended? Yes

Does its very best with a dull as dishwater subject. Detailed and well-written but a slog.

#3: Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, Jon Meacham

Recommended? Yes

Brilliantly written, full of great detail, pulls its punches on some of his darker aspects but doesn't ignore them.

#4: James Madison

The Three Lives of James Madison: Genius, Partisan, President, Noah Feldman

Recommended? Yes

Detailed and engaging, a little longer than its subject deserves.

#5: James Monroe

The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation's Call to Greatness, Harlow Giles Unger

Recommended? Yes

Concise, about as long as this shitty dude deserved, but too nice to him.

#6: John Quincy Adams

John Quincy Adams: Militant Spirit, James Traub

Recommended? Yes

JQA was even duller than his dad. The bio is workmanlike with much less of the color of other bios.

#7: Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times, H W Brands

Recommended? Yes

Military-focused, containing less personal detail than is probably warranted, but very readable.

#8: Martin Van Buren

Martin Van Buren: A Captivating Guide to the Man Who Served as the Eighth President of the United States , Captivating History

Recommended? No

Short and cliff notes-y but with some fun details, and very engaging. Best of the cliff-notes bios.

#9: William Henry Harrison

William Henry Harrison: The Life and Legacy of the First American President to Die in Office, Charles River Editors

Recommended? No

Just under 2 hours long, a cliff-notes bio. Not great.

#10: John Tyler

John Tyler, Robert J Spitzer

Recommended? No

28 minutes long, a shitty all-the-presidents entry.

#11: James K Polk

Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America, Walter R Borneman

Recommended? Yes

Author wanted to write about Jackson and sort of accidentally wrote about Polk. Not good.

#12: Zachary Taylor

Zachary Taylor, Paul Finkelman

Recommended? No

A 24-minute all-the-presidents entry. Taylor sucked but so does this bio.

(No tweet for this one)

#13: Millard Fillmore

Millard Fillmore, Joseph F Rishel

Recommended? No

17 minutes long! The shortest bio yet, a worthless all-the-presidents entry.

#14: Franklin Pierce

Franklin Pierce, Paul Finkelman

Recommended? No

Another all-the-presidents entry. A few fun tidbits.

#15: James Buchanan

Worst. President. Ever. James Buchanan, the POTUS Rating Game, and the Legacy of the Least of the Lesser Presidents, Robert Strauss

Recommended? Yes

A delightful treatment of a shitty subject, light-hearted but well researched, very engaging.

#16: Abraham Lincoln

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, Doris Kearns Goodwin

Recommended? Yes

DKG has a well-earned reputation as an excellent biographer and Lincoln is an amazing subject. 42 hours of material fly by.

#17: Andrew Johnson

After Lincoln: How the North Won the Civil War and Lost the Peace , A J Langguth

Recommended? No

Not really a bio of Johnson, but covers the aftermath of Lincoln so mostly about Johnson. Good but little personal detail about Johnson for that reason.

#18: Ulysses S Grant

American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant, Ronald C White

Recommended? Yes

Fantastic book of a truly great and under-rated president. Great details.

#19: Rutherford B Hayes

Rutherford B Hayes, Hans L Trefousse

Recommended? No

5 hours long which is 4 hours long than its subject deserved. Yawnfest.

#20: James A Garfield

James A Garfield: The 20th President's 200 Days in Office, in60Learning

Recommended? Yes

An hour long but left me wanting much more.

#21: Chester A Arthur

The Unexpected President: The Life and Times of Chester A. Arthur, Scott S Greenberger

Recommended? Yes

Recommended only for the excellent details of Julia Sand's letters.

#22: Grover Cleveland

An Honest President: The Life and Presidencies of Grover Cleveland, H Paul Jeffers

Recommended? No

A mediocre bio of a mediocre guy.

#23: Benjamin Harrison

Benjamin Harrison, Allan B Spetter

Recommended? No

An all-the-presidents series entry, just 22 minutes long, barely worth it.

#24: Cleveland again.

#25: William McKinley

William McKinley, Kevin Phillips, Arthur M Schlesinger

Recommended? No

An all-the-presidents entry much longer than it needed to be.

#26: Theodore Roosevelt

The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, Edmund Morris

Recommended? Yes

The first of an epic 3-book series on TR of which I read 2. Definitive and captivating.

#27: William Howard Taft

William Howard Taft: The American Presidents Series: The 27th President, 1909-1913, Jeffrey Rosen, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., Sean Wilentz

Recommended? No

Lacks compelling personal details that could have fit in 5 hours. Not compelling.

#28: Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson: A Biography, John Milton Cooper

Recommended? Yes

Way too long given how dull Wilson is but well-written.

#29: Warren G Harding

Warren G Harding, James D Robenalt

Recommended? No

Short and dull but still not as bad as The Bloviator, which is awful and nobody should read.

#30: Calvin Coolidge

Coolidge, Amity Shlaes

Recommended? Yes

A concise and insightful look at an important transitional president.

#31: Herbert Hoover

Hoover: An Extraordinary Life in Extraordinary Times , Kenneth Whyte

Recommended? Yes

I could have read another 50% of this 27-hour book. Fascinating.

#32: Franklin D Roosevelt

FDR, Jean Edward Smith

Recommended? Yes

A gem of a book, full of amazing details, and a wonderful subject.

#33: Harry S Truman

Harry S Truman: A Life, Robert H Ferrell

Recommended? Yes

Well-written and detailed but insufficiently critical of its surprisingly crooked subject.

#34: Dwight D Eisenhower

Eisenhower in War and Peace, Jean Edward Smith

Recommended? Yes

Sort of a side-effect of the FDR bio but well-written and workable.

#35: John F Kennedy

An Unfinished Life: John F Kennedy, 1917-1963,

Recommended? Yes

A good book but cruelly, pointlessly abridged, please release the full thing.

#36: Lyndon B Johnson

Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream: The Most Revealing Portrait of a President and Presidential Power Ever Written, Doris Kearns Goodwin

Recommended? Yes

A mind-blowing book of amazing depth and quality of writing from an author incredibly close to her subject. Unmissable.

Still to come: Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and George H W Bush.

I will not be doing: Bill Clinton, George W Bush, Barack Obama or Trump, as they are all still too recent for biographies to have all the facts.

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