Hail to the Chiefs: Or How to Tell Your Polks from Your Tylers
by Barbara Holland
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Description
A compendium of the highlights and lowlights from the careers of our 43 chief executives-from George Washington to George Bush Jr.-told with wit and accuracy, clearly reminding us that presidents are also people. Under the mutton-chop whiskers, behind the bulging waistcoats, presidents were actually human.Tags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
I'm not entirely sure who this book is for....if you know much about the presidents, there's very little new here. If you don't, the chapters are written in such a breezy style that I can't imagine they would be of much use. I'm also disturbed by the lack of any citations or reference work in the book. It is occasionally amusing, and its a pretty quick and easy read, but I don't think I can recommend it.
It turns out I couldn't find a biography of William Henry Harrison for this month's US Presidents Challenge. I mean, he was only in office for a month before he died, so how much could there be to write about? So now I've got a dilemma - skip this President or not...I waffled a bit, looked him up on Wikipedia and few other websites, then came across Hail to the Chiefs.
Barbara Holland has collected stories of each President through Reagan and put them together in a very funny, very wry set of vignettes. It's light and fluffy, but eas just the thing for an airplane ride!
Barbara Holland has collected stories of each President through Reagan and put them together in a very funny, very wry set of vignettes. It's light and fluffy, but eas just the thing for an airplane ride!
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Author Information
21+ Works 1,677 Members
Barbara Holland is a Virginian and long-time observer of the Washington scene.
Common Knowledge
- People/Characters
- George Washington; Martha Custis Washington; Abigail Adams; John Adams; Sally Hemings; Thomas Jefferson (show all 81); Dolley Madison; James Madison; Elizabeth Monroe; James Monroe; John Quincy Adams; Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams; Rachel Jackson; Martin van Buren; William Henry Harrison; John Tyler; Letitia Christian Tyler; Julia Gardiner Tyler; James Knox Polk; Sarah Childress Polk; Zachary Taylor; Millard Fillmore; Franklin Pierce; Jane Pierce; Winfield Scott; James Buchanan; Harriet Lane; Abraham Lincoln; Mary Todd Lincoln; Andrew Johnson; Eliza Johnson; Julia Dent Grant; Ulysses S. Grant; Lucy Webb Hayes; Rutherford B. Hayes; Lucretia Rudolph Garfield; James A. Garfield; Winfield Scott Hancock; Chester A. Arthur; Ellen Lewis Herndon Arthur; Frances Clara Cleveland; Grover Cleveland; Benjamin Harrison; Caroline Lavinia Harrison; William McKinley; Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt; Theodore Roosevelt; Nellie Taft; William Howard Taft; Edith Wilson; Woodrow Wilson; Florence Harding; Warren G. Harding; Calvin Coolidge; Grace Coolidge; Herbert Hoover; Lou Hoover; Eleanor Roosevelt; Franklin Delano Roosevelt; Bess Truman; Harry S. Truman; Dwight D. Eisenhower; Mamie Eisenhower; John F. Kennedy; Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis; Lady Bird Johnson; Lyndon Baines Johnson; Pat Nixon; Richard M. Nixon; Betty Ford; Gerald Ford; Jimmy Carter; Rosalynn Carter; Nancy Reagan; Ronald Reagan; Barbara Bush; George H. W. Bush; Bill Clinton; Hillary Rodham Clinton; George W. Bush; Laura Bush
- Important places
- Washington, D.C., USA; White House, Washington, D.C., USA
- Dedication
- To My Mother
- First words
- The greatest glory of our system is its dazzling variety.
- Quotations
- However, Buchanan had more enemies than a dog has fleas and they called him all sorts of opprobrious names, and if his sex life was non-standard, I'm sure they would have brought it up at the time. They didn't.
Frances Folsom was twenty-one and beautiful. He was forty-nine and Grover Cleveland. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Anything can happen.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 133
- Popularity
- 244,886
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.50)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 5
- ASINs
- 1
