Walking with Presidents

Walking with Presidents PDF Author: Alex Poinsett
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780847697410
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
In the last weeks of the 1960 presidential race, Louis Martin pulled off a minor miracle. With two days to go before the election, this passionate civil rights advocate and Democratic activists put two million pamphlets into the hands of black voters across America, informing them of Senator John F. Kennedy's sympathetic phone call to Martin Luther King, Jr., then languishing in a Georgia prison. The center of gravity in black partisan support shifted, and Kennedy won by a hair. This is just one example of the remarkable influence Louis Martin had on national politics for more than four decades. Now, for the first time, the story of Louis Martin's life is told. Walking with Presidents traces the career of an African American who rose from crusading journalist to preeminent presidential advisor and civil rights liason in the Kennedy, Johnson, and Carter administrations. Martin was the consummate insider, unconcerned about who got credit for his work so long as he could advance his mission--bringing African Americans into the political mainstream.

Walking with Presidents

Walking with Presidents PDF Author: Alex Poinsett
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780847697410
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
In the last weeks of the 1960 presidential race, Louis Martin pulled off a minor miracle. With two days to go before the election, this passionate civil rights advocate and Democratic activists put two million pamphlets into the hands of black voters across America, informing them of Senator John F. Kennedy's sympathetic phone call to Martin Luther King, Jr., then languishing in a Georgia prison. The center of gravity in black partisan support shifted, and Kennedy won by a hair. This is just one example of the remarkable influence Louis Martin had on national politics for more than four decades. Now, for the first time, the story of Louis Martin's life is told. Walking with Presidents traces the career of an African American who rose from crusading journalist to preeminent presidential advisor and civil rights liason in the Kennedy, Johnson, and Carter administrations. Martin was the consummate insider, unconcerned about who got credit for his work so long as he could advance his mission--bringing African Americans into the political mainstream.

Martin Van Buren

Martin Van Buren PDF Author: Edward L. Widmer
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0805069224
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
The first president born after America's independence ushers in a new era of no-holds-barred democracy The first "professional politician" to become president, the slick and dandyish Martin Van Buren was to all appearances the opposite of his predecessor, the rugged general and Democratic champion Andrew Jackson. Van Buren, a native Dutch speaker, was America's first ethnic president as well as the first New Yorker to hold the office, at a time when Manhattan was bursting with new arrivals. A sharp and adroit political operator, he established himself as a powerhouse in New York, becoming a U.S. senator, secretary of state, and vice president under Jackson, whose election he managed. His ascendancy to the Oval Office was virtually a foregone conclusion. Once he had the reins of power, however, Van Buren found the road quite a bit rougher. His attempts to find a middle ground on the most pressing issues of his day-such as the growing regional conflict over slavery-eroded his effectiveness. But it was his inability to prevent the great banking panic of 1837, and the ensuing depression, that all but ensured his fall from grace and made him the third president to be denied a second term. His many years of outfoxing his opponents finally caught up with him. Ted Widmer, a veteran of the Clinton White House, vividly brings to life the chaos and contention that plagued Van Buren's presidency-and ultimately offered an early lesson in the power of democracy.

Five Presidents

Five Presidents PDF Author: Clint Hill
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1476794138
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 464

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Book Description
"Secret Service agent Clint Hill ... reflects on his seventeen years protecting the most powerful office in the nation. Hill walked alongside Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, and Gerald R. Ford, seeing them through a long, tumultuous era-the Cold War; the Cuban Missile Crisis; the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy; the Vietnam War; Watergate; and the resignations of Spiro Agnew and Richard M. Nixon"--Provided by publisher.

The President's Book of Secrets

The President's Book of Secrets PDF Author: David Priess
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 1610395964
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
Every president has had a unique and complicated relationship with the intelligence community. While some have been coolly distant, even adversarial, others have found their intelligence agencies to be among the most valuable instruments of policy and power. Since John F. Kennedy's presidency, this relationship has been distilled into a personalized daily report: a short summary of what the intelligence apparatus considers the most crucial information for the president to know that day about global threats and opportunities. This top-secret document is known as the President's Daily Brief, or, within national security circles, simply "the Book." Presidents have spent anywhere from a few moments (Richard Nixon) to a healthy part of their day (George W. Bush) consumed by its contents; some (Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush) consider it far and away the most important document they saw on a regular basis while commander in chief. The details of most PDBs are highly classified, and will remain so for many years. But the process by which the intelligence community develops and presents the Book is a fascinating look into the operation of power at the highest levels. David Priess, a former intelligence officer and daily briefer, has interviewed every living president and vice president as well as more than one hundred others intimately involved with the production and delivery of the president's book of secrets. He offers an unprecedented window into the decision making of every president from Kennedy to Obama, with many character-rich stories revealed here for the first time.

First in Line

First in Line PDF Author: Kate Andersen Brower
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 006266896X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 419

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Book Description
“An intimate, compulsively readable account of the dynamics that have shaped—and sometimes destroyed—relations at the top of the American political hierarchy.... [and] a valuable addition to the literature of the modern presidency.” — Wall Street Journal From the author of the New York Times bestsellers First Women and The Residence, an intimate, news-making look at the men who are next in line to the most powerful office in the world—the vice presidents of the modern era—from Richard Nixon to Joe Biden to Mike Pence. Vice presidents occupy a unique and important position, living partway in the spotlight and part in the wings. Of the forty-eight vice presidents who have served the United States, fourteen have become president; eight of these have risen to the Oval Office because of a president’s death or assassination, and one became president after his boss’s resignation. John Nance Garner, FDR’s first vice president, famously said the vice presidency is "not worth a bucket of warm piss" (later cleaned up to "warm spit"). But things have changed dramatically in recent years. In interviews with more than two hundred people, including former vice presidents, their family members, and insiders and confidants of every president since Jimmy Carter, Kate Andersen Brower pulls back the curtain and reveals the sometimes cold, sometimes close, and always complicated relationship between our modern presidents and their vice presidents. Brower took us inside the lives of the White House staff and gave us an intimate look at the modern First Ladies; now, in her signature style, she introduces us to the second most powerful men in the world, exploring the lives and roles of thirteen modern vice presidents—eight Republicans and five Democrats. And she shares surprising revelations about the relationship between former Vice President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama and how Vice President Mike Pence and President Donald Trump interact behind closed doors. From rivals to coworkers, there is a very tangible sense of admiration mixed with jealousy and resentment in nearly all these relationships between the number two and his boss, even the best ones, Brower reveals. Vice presidents owe their position to the president, a connection that affects not only how they are perceived but also their possible future as a presidential candidate—which is tied, for better or worse, to the president they serve. George H. W. Bush and Ronald Reagan had a famously prickly relationship during the 1980 primary, yet Bush would not have been elected president in 1988 without Reagan’s high approval rating. Al Gore’s 2000 loss, meanwhile, could be attributed to the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal and Bill Clinton’s impeachment. Current Vice President Mike Pence is walking a high-stakes political tightrope as he tries to reassure anxious Republicans while staying on his boss’s good side. This rich dynamic between the president and the vice president has never been fully explored or understood. Compelling and deeply reported, grounded in history and politics, and full of previously untold and incredibly personal stories, First In Line pierces the veil of secrecy enveloping this historic political office to offer us a candid portrait of what it’s truly like to be a heartbeat away.

How to Fight Presidents

How to Fight Presidents PDF Author: Daniel O'Brien
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 038534757X
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
Make no mistake: Our founding fathers were more bandanas-and-muscles than powdered-wigs-and-tea. As a prisoner of war, Andrew Jackson walked several miles barefoot across state lines while suffering from smallpox and a serious head wound received when he refused to polish the boots of the soldiers who had taken him captive. He was thirteen years old. A few decades later, he became the first popularly elected president and served the nation, pausing briefly only to beat a would-be assassin with a cane to within an inch of his life. Theodore Roosevelt had asthma, was blind in one eye, survived multiple gunshot wounds, had only one regret (that there were no wars to fight under his presidency), and was the first U.S. president to win the Medal of Honor, which he did after he died. Faced with the choice, George Washington actually preferred the sound of bullets whizzing by his head in battle over the sound of silence. And now these men—these hallowed leaders of the free world—want to kick your ass. Plenty of historians can tell you which president had the most effective economic strategies, and which president helped shape our current political parties, but can any of them tell you what to do if you encounter Chester A. Arthur in a bare-knuckled boxing fight? This book will teach you how to be better, stronger, faster, and more deadly than the most powerful (and craziest) men in history. You’re welcome.

Personality, Character, and Leadership in the White House

Personality, Character, and Leadership in the White House PDF Author: Steven J. Rubenzer
Publisher: Potomac Books, Inc.
ISBN: 161234285X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 644

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Book Description
Analyzing the American presidents from George Washington to George W. Bush

The Road to War

The Road to War PDF Author: Marvin L. Kalb
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815724934
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 303

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Book Description
The Road to War examines how presidential commitments can lead to the use of American military force, and to war. Marvin Kalb notes that since World War II, "presidents have relied more on commitments, public and private, than they have on declarations of war, even though the U.S. Constitution declares rather unambiguously that Congress has the responsibility to "declare" war.

The Presidents and the Pastime

The Presidents and the Pastime PDF Author: Curt Smith
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 1496207394
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 613

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Book Description
The Presidents and the Pastime draws on Curt Smith's extensive background as a former White House presidential speechwriter to chronicle the historic relationship between baseball, the "most American" sport, and the U.S. presidency. Smith, who USA TODAY calls "America's voice of authority on baseball broadcasting," starts before America's birth, when would‑be presidents played baseball antecedents. He charts how baseball cemented its reputation as America's pastime in the nineteenth century, such presidents as Lincoln and Johnson playing town ball or giving employees time off to watch. Smith tracks every U.S. president from Theodore Roosevelt to Donald Trump, each chapter filled with anecdotes: Wilson buoyed by baseball after suffering disability; a heroic FDR saving baseball in World War II; Carter, taught the game by his mother, Lillian; Reagan, airing baseball on radio that he never saw--by "re-creation." George H. W. Bush, for whom Smith wrote, explains, "Baseball has everything." Smith, having interviewed a majority of presidents since Richard Nixon, shares personal stories on each. Throughout, The Presidents and the Pastime provides a riveting narrative of how America's leaders have treated baseball. From Taft as the first president to throw the "first pitch" on Opening Day in 1910 to Obama's "Go Sox!" scrawled in the guest register at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2014, our presidents have deemed it the quintessentially American sport, enriching both their office and the nation.

Five Days in November

Five Days in November PDF Author: Clint Hill
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1476731519
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
Secret Service agent Clint Hill reveals the stories behind the iconic images of the five tragic days surrounding President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in this 60th anniversary edition of the New York Times bestseller. On November 22, 1963, three shots were fired in Dallas, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and the world stopped for four days. For an entire generation, it was the end of an age of innocence. That evening, a photo ran on the front pages of newspapers across the world, showing a Secret Service agent jumping on the back of the presidential limousine in a desperate attempt to protect the President and Mrs. Kennedy. That agent was Clint Hill. Now Hill commemorates the sixtieth anniversary of the tragedy with this stunning book containing more than 150 photos, each accompanied by his incomparable insider account of those terrible days. A story that has taken Hill half a century to tell, this is a “riveting, stunning narrative” (Herald & Review, Illinois) of personal and historical scope. Besides the unbearable grief of a nation and the monumental consequences of the event, the death of JFK was a personal blow to a man sworn to protect the first family, and who knew, from the moment the shots rang out in Dallas, that nothing would ever be the same.