Warren G. Harding

An examination of the skillful political maneuvering of William Borah and Hiram Johnson, two of the post-war leaders of Republican progressivism, this study analyzes efforts to prevent U.S. entry into the League of Nations despite overwhelming support for the organization among both Democrats and Republicans. Following the debacle of the 1912 election, the leadership of the Republican Party embarked on a strategy of reconciliation designed to end the acrimony between progressive and conservative factions so that it could unite against the Democratic Party. A small group of progressive Republicans quickly realized that they could threaten to resume infighting and could, thus, influence policy making on important foreign policy issues.

The contributors to this volume examine the popular images of 22 American presidents. They attempt to determine the public standing of these presidencies and consider each president in terms of his image over time. It is argued that fluctuations in succeeding generations' interpretations of past presidents are significant to understanding the kaleidoscopic nature of presidential images. A variety of analytical approaches is employed, including examination of historical narrative, content analysis of editorials and news coverage, and explication of public opinion survey data.

A candid inquiry into the policies & personalities of America's presidents, sweeping away popular misconceptions. A U.S. history as seen from the White House.

In sailing westward in 1492, did Columbus defy the prevailing belief that the Earth was flat? Was Thomas Paine an atheist? Was Truman plucked from obscurity to be FDR's running mate in 1944? Are presidential campaigns nowadays far dirtier than they were in the past? Is Hillary Clinton the most active or influential First Lady ever? Not so, says Paul Boller, in this delightfully informative look at some of the most common myths and misconceptions about the American past. As he did in his bestselling They Never Said It, Boller provides us with a cornucopia of historical correction, debunking myths that range from the trivial--for instance, George Washington did not have false teeth made of wood (they were made of ivory)--to the pernicious (FDR did not know in advance that the Japanese planned to bomb Pearl Harbor). We learn that most educated people in Columbus's day knew the world was round (it was Washington Irving who first portrayed Columbus as defying a coterie of flat-earthers); that Washington's famous Farewell Address was mostly written by Alexander Hamilton; that the Pledge of Allegiance was penned by Francis Bellamy, a devout socialist, in 1892 (and it was intended as a paean to big government); that Thomas Paine was not an atheist, but a deist (as were Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin), and his Age of Reason attacked both organized religion and atheism; that Truman was far from an obscure politician in 1944 (he had been on the cover of Time in 1943 for his Senate work uncovering waste and fraud in the war industries, and a Look magazine poll placed Truman among the ten figures who had contributed the most to the war effort); that presidential campaigns in the old days were more vituperative than recent ones; and that several First Ladies were more influential than Hillary Clinton, most notably Eleanor Roosevelt and Edith Wilson (the latter played a crucial role in her husband's administration from 1919 to 1921, after he suffered a massive stroke). Boller doesn't simply debunk each myth, but instead provides us with much fascinating history surrounding each case, so that the reader is treated to intriguing discussions of many singular episodes in American history, including the Kennedy assassination, the McCarthy hearings, the events leading up to Pearl Harbor, and Watergate. And finally, if the book provides many eye-opening surprises and amusing passages, there is also a serious side of Boller's exploration of American myth. As he shows, much misinformation has been cooked up for political or ideological reasons. By debunking these tales, Boller warns us to question what we hear and what we think we know about America and about our leaders, past and present. The chronicles of American history are strewn with legends, fables, folklore, misconceptions, and outright lies. Patriotism has set many a tall tale in motion, but so have political partisanship and ideological zeal. For everyone who loves history--or the truth--Paul Boller has given us a candid and absorbing look at the American past that helps us get a good sense of where we have been and who we are as a people.

As his previous books Presidential Anecdotes and Presidential Campaigns clearly proved, Paul F. Boller, Jr. has a remarkable eye for the telling detail that humanizes history and gives it life. In this new book, he brings that gift to bear on the women our Presidents married, and the result is a biographical feast--at once funny and poignant, dramatic and illuminating, covering every First Lady from Martha Washington to Nancy Reagan. In these vivid and entertaining pages, we encounter the trend-setter Dolley Madison's "unfortunate propensity to snuff-taking"--a propensity that soon had Washington's other women doing the same. We learn that Mary Todd Lincoln held such harsh opinions of some of her husband's appointments that he felt compelled to tell her, "If I listened to you, I should soon be without a cabinet." We meet Edith Wilson in a Red Cross canteen after America's entry into World War I, dispensing candy and cigarettes to the doughboys departing for France. We find Eleanor Roosevelt on the night of FDR's election to his first term, lamenting, "Now I'll have no identity," and then going on to become the greatest of all the "Woman Doers" to occupy the White House. And we hear Lady Bird Johnson's advice to her two young daughters prior to a State Dinner in honor of the President of Sudan: "Read all you can in the encyclopedia about the Sudan. And don't drink any of the wine at dinner." In the manner of his earlier books, Boller devotes a chapter to each of his subjects, featuring an incisive biographical essay followed by a selection of revealing anecdotes. The book portrays a diverse group of women--shrinking violets, passionate partisans, spotlight-loving hostesses, and devoted helpmeets who remained silent in public but actively advised their husbands in private. Once again, Boller delightfully demonstrates how much the institution of the presidency and all that surrounds it tells us about ourselves as a people and our life as a nation.