Nancy Gibbs

A well-researched study of inter-presidential relationships. Getting the balance right of basic background and new information seems to have proved a bit tricky in places, but other than that minor quibble, a very good read.

A short history of the modern Presidency from Hoover to Obama, told entirely in stories about the interactions between presidents, ex-presidents, and future presidents. The stuff you'd expect is here—Ford's pardon of Nixon, former president Carter's rogue diplomacy in North Korea, the disaster relief team of George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton—but there's a lot of hidden history, too: Nixon's deliberate interference in the Vietnamese peace talks of 1968, stalling any peace settlement show more until it could no longer benefit the Democrats; Clinton's late night phone calls to Nixon, getting foreign policy advice; Ford and Carter's strong mutual distaste turning to a grudging appreciation in the course of an overseas trip; Clinton's surprising adoption into the Bush clan as a "Brother of Another Mother." As I read all these stories, gathered mostly from memoirs, presidential papers, and interviews with staff who were there, my impressions of all these men widened as they grew more human. If you're interested in the intersection of personality and politics, there's a lot of material here for you. show less

“The President’s Club” is an excellent treatment of the untold relations among sitting U. S. Presidents, and those who occupied the office before them followed them. The public perception is primarily that the presidents who represent different parties opposed each other while those from the same party, while not BFF, were more compatible. That is an oversimplification and in many instances erroneous characterization of the relations among the Presidents. Party affiliation continued to show more be of importance only when political campaigns were involved.

Gibbs and Duffy provide a meticulously detailed summary of the way in which the Presidents cooperated. In most instances their primary goal was to protect the Office of the President of the United Sates, regardless of the political party of the present office-holder.

Significant individual differences characterized the extent to which the various presidents contributed to the efforts of the present office-holder. Some charismatic Presidents such as Eisenhower and Reagan were largely disconnected after leaving office, although Eisenhower continued to have an outsized influence on foreign policy. Some who left office under a cloud such as Hoover and Clinton have been enormously cooperative with and helpful to the Presidents who replaced them. Clinton was so helpful and friendly to H.W. and W. Bush that the Bush clan informally named him Brother Bill. Hoover can take credit along with Truman for establishing the international conditions that has resulted in the decades long absence of another world war.

Jimmy Carter turns out to be one of the most complex and to my mind unlikeable former Presidents. Opinionated and unreliable, he accepted missions offered by the sitting President, then ignored the instructions he was given and acted on his own agenda. It turned out in at least a couple of instances, however, that his renegade actions resulted in a beneficial outcome. It seems possible to question the integrity the man who adopted a sanctimonious attitude towards others while applauding his accomplishments.
“The President’s Club” is bound to expand your understanding to the office of the President of the United States and the human nature of the men that have occupied it, and of their influence on foreign and domestic policy. show less

Excellent overview of these Presidents, taken for the most part, after they left office. Fun anecdotes.

One of the nice things about the book was the lack (seemingly) of a political agenda. It will be interesting if Trump is invited to join ranks with these patriotic Americans.