Confronting the Presidents: No Spin Assessments from Washington to Biden

Writing: 4.5; Theme: 5.0; Content: 4.5; Language: 4.5; Overall: 4.5

This is the first book in this new series by Bill O'Reilly. I do appreciate that the author sincerely attempts to be as fair as possible, even while I don't think he "always" hits the mark, but he does most of the time. In this tome, he travels through time with each president, sharing a moment in each of their presidency that was momentous, along with basic biographical information of each leader. It was very interesting and informative. While I'm not judging the coauthor entirely on the fact that he is a Democrat, I am troubled when an individual treats the current Democrat Party and the "leaders" within the party, as if they are the same. The current Democrat Party is show more radicalized and one of the individuals that Martin Dugard admires is Joe Biden. This is a little troubling, but I have enjoyed several of the books that he has coauthored with O'Reilly. Highly recommend overall.

***June 25, 2025*** show less

I like Bill O'Reilly's books, I did not realize the he and his co-author Martin Dugard are supposedly the biggest nonfiction authors going. His Killing series was good and now this Confronting take, in this case all of our Presidents, is just as good.

Each president is profiled with a recap of their term in office as well as a brief bio on their getting there. They are a fast insightful and fun read. I particularly like the little know tidbits they throw in the make them more like real people. With all their charm and glaring faults they come across as more real everyday people not political icons.

For those casually interested in the leaders of our country this is a great primer, brief, mostly fair, and interesting. You will learn a lot show more and maybe even marvel at the greatness, incompetence, and commonality of these men who led our country through its storied history. show less

A very interesting and insightful history of all the presidents, one chapter for each. From Washington through Obama, you'll learn interesting tidbits as well as any analysis of their strengths and weaknesses. The authors finish the book, each writing their own take on the presidencies of Trump and Biden, showing slight differences in the analytic views.

5.0 This is great! Brief overview of each of our presidents. The good, the bad, the ugly, the surprising. Inspires me to dig into some presidential biographies I haven’t read yet including TR, Woodrow Wilson, Obama.

14 hours,10 minutes. As usual, these authors document many details and information about the U.S. Presidents that I didn't know. I was more interested in the better known presidents which could be expected. This book was written before the 2024 election so Trump's immense triumph in that election are not documented. To my surprise, Biden and Trump are not dealt with in any depth. Trumps 2016 victory is not a focus. (But Bill did write a whole book about him, The United States of Trump.) There are 44 chapters, an "afterward" and a "closing". The 44th chapter is concerned about the history and information on Barack Obama. One interesting fact is when he was a Senator, he voted "Present" 129 times seemingly not able to take a stand on show more issues. It then goes on to narrate his childhood, schooling, marriage and family. I didn't know that the Obama's 2 children were the result of invitro fertilization. (There is no mention of the rumors that Michelle is really a man, Joan Rivers comment, the man who said he was hired to be a sex partner for the then Senator Obama, and the other photos etc. that assert this idea.) After Obama became President, There is also no mention of Obama's "apology tour" or foreign policy of appeasement. He is presented as a successful, loving family man who will "mature with age". Bill relates the "bad blood" between Trump and Obama over the question of Obama's birth certificate. Bill adamantly declares that Obama was born in Hawaii and Trump is wrong, siting newspapers from that time period. This feud is dramatized when at a White House Correspondence dinner in 2011 when, O'Reilly is sitting with Trump and Obama humorously makes fun of Mr. Trump from stage. O'Reilly goes into quotes and details concerning the jokes. The narration continues praising Obama for the kill of Osama Bin Ladin. He also relates briefly Obama's decision to have gays in the military, and his comments concerning Travon Martin. Finally, Obama is "credited" with the rise of Islam terrorism, but Bengasi is a blip in this book. Then back to the White House Correspondence dinner of 2016 and Obama is cracking jokes again at Trumps expense, and O'Reilly clearly relates them. (Obama is put into such a favorable light, that it sounds like Bill voted for Obama, but of course, I wouldn't know. The Afterward, are separate comments by Bill and his co-author Martin Dugard. Bill says Biden and Trump cannot be judged as of that time. Dugard likes Biden and says Trump is one of the 5 worst presidents. NO mention of Biden's mental decline. Honestly, I was disappointed in this book. show less

Short review of each president. Good read. Bill leans right and Dugard leans left. Bill more so.

Informative, extensive, and enjoyable reading about all our Presidents