Marie: I've read a book about each American president. From Washington to Biden it took me nearly a decade. I ended up reading over 50 books and I think it will always be a subject I return to. It taught me a lot about American history that I hadn't previously known, and because I read each book chronologically it provided context, depth, and differing viewpoints.
Cee: What a fascinating literary project! I am over here somewhat obsessively thinking about the Prez project - could we dialogue about it?
What are the most common personality traits among US presidents?
What made this reading project so interesting is that each president was so different in temperament. Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft were contemporaries, of the same political party, and yet they could not have been more different. Roosevelt had a larger-than-life personality and Taft was very cerebral. We see this repeatedly even when accounting for the sensibilities of the day. I do think anyone running for the highest office in the land does need to have a certain level of ambition, but I didn’t find that presidents fit a certain overall mold.
What professions, skill sets, or experiences are common among US presidents?
Most US presidents have a background in law or the military. From John Adams to Barack Obama twenty-six presidents have been lawyers. Thirteen presidents have been Generals and many more have served in some capacity. I didn’t find that surprising given that those professions provide skills and a natural path into politics.
I was surprised at how many presidents were bereaved parents. Eighteen presidents lost children. John Adams. Calvin Coolidge. Ronald Raegan. Joe Biden. Each man experienced the most heartbreaking kind of loss, transcending time and political party.
Who is the strangest or most atypical US president – and why?
Donald Trump. He’s the only president without any political or military experience.
I think the president that surprised me the most was John F. Kennedy. I had a certain image of him in my head and it turns out I didn’t really know very much about his actual presidency or who he was as a person. . I didn't realize how ill he was until I read An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963 by Robert Dallek.
Which US president is the most interesting?
My favorite era of presidents was probably those around the turn of the 19th century. I thought Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft were very interesting presidents and that their relationship was fascinating to read about. It probably helps that there are some really great books about them like The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism by Doris Kearns Goodwin.
Which US president is least interesting – and why?
We had a string of uninteresting presidents starting from about William Henry Harrison to Franklin Pierce. This might be due to a lack of good writing about this time period, but I suspect it has more to do with the presidents themselves and the relative lack of power the office held at the time.
Which US president had the strongest executive branch (compared to the power of Congress and the Supreme Court of their day)?
Strength is a hard thing to quantify, but I think wartime presidents such as Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt certainly increased the powers of the presidency. More recently I would say that George W. Bush leveraged the September 11th attacks to expand the executive branch’s authority.
I’m currently reading The Good Fight. In it, Shirley Chisholm discusses her bid for presidency, which she primarily saw as a tactic to force Democratic candidates to take bolder stances on issues of justice and equity in her day. She discusses at length how money was a big barrier to mounting the campaign she wanted, including just to submit filing fees to participate in state primaries.
Are there rival candidates for the office of US president who didn't hold the office but especially intrigue you?
I think I’d like to go back and read a book about Henry Clay. He loomed large in a lot of the books I read. He ran unsuccessfully for president three times but was a major political figure for most of his life. His story intersects with a lot of presidencies, most notably James Madison, John Quincy Adams, and Andrew Jackson. It would be interesting to read a book focused solely on his life and career.
How has campaigning for the role of US president changed over time?
Campaigning has changed in a lot of ways. Our earliest presidents considered it impolite to even run a political campaign. It was seen as ungentlemanly. Fast forward to today and campaigning is a multi-billion dollar endeavor. In some ways, it hasn’t changed. One of the reasons I set out to do this project was to see if other elections were as contentious as the one in 2016. Turns out many of them were pretty fraught. 1876 was a real head spinner!
What's your hot take on the US project of democracy?
Americans are raised to believe they are the best in the world. We’re not by a lot of societal and economic indicators. There’s nothing wrong with being proud of where you come from, but I think that this belief sometimes blinds us from looking at how other nations do things to greater effect. I think this mentality holds us back from making much-needed changes to promote safety, equality, and advancement.
Any surprising factoid(s) to share?
One of the most intriguing books I read was called The President Is a Sick Man by Matthew Algeo. It tells the story of how Grover Cleveland was secreted aboard a ship to have mouth surgery for a cancerous tumor. They had to remove part of his jaw. Almost no one knew where he was for five days. That could never happen today! Can you imagine what would have happened if the surgery had gone wrong? It wasn’t made public knowledge until after his death.
You're a migrant out of the US. What do you most wish more USians understood about the presidency?
I moved out of the US in 2018 and it’s been interesting to see the US at a distance while simultaneously studying its history. I think I erroneously thought that presidents had a lot more power to enact change than they really do. They can set policies and work with Congress, but they don’t actually control the economy. They don’t set gas prices. I would be leary of any candidate claiming to be able to radically improve everything all at once.
How did you choose just one book about each president?
I actually read a few books for some presidents so I don't know that I really limited myself to just one. I selected biographies that looked at their entire lives from birth to death until I reached the presidents alive today. Then I mostly shifted to presidential memoirs because the books I want to read about them haven't been written yet. I tried very hard to choose books written by historians who were non-partisan and extensive in their research. Ron Chernow was consistently excellent, so Washington: A Life and Grant by him are highly recommended. Matthew Algeo's books are not straightforward biographies but I found his books about Grover Cleveland and Harry Truman delightful.
What would you recommend to other readers interested in this or similar literary projects on US presidents?
I don’t think there’s a right or wrong way to do this literary project, but I’ll share what worked for me. First, it sounds simple, but I made a list of books about each president and that helped me stay organized and motivated. I preferred to do it in chronological order because that helped me understand the context of the times and it offered different viewpoints. The same people would pop up in different books but different authors would either reaffirm, expand upon, or counteract what other writers had included in their books. I loved that. Second, I tried pairing this challenge with other mediums. Sometimes I watched documentaries or movies about the people or events mentioned. There’s a great podcast called Presidential by the Washington Post that I listened to. I tried to keep it interesting for myself because a lot of presidential biographies are large and intimidating. Lastly, don’t feel bad for taking breaks. It’s a long term project that you can tackle slowly.
Parting thoughts?
A presidential reading challenge combines the very large scope of history, but also the personal life of a real human being. I love the juxtaposition. It's an interesting lens through which to learn about American history. So with Trump, we know what we’re going to get: Misinformation. Hateful rhetoric. The normalisation of misogynistic and racist language and behaviour. It's all been done before. This is absolutely not to say, “Don't worry about it. Do nothing.” Rather: Read read read! A literary project like this one is worth the undertaking now more than ever.
I’m still thinking through patterns and lessons. I’ve been trying to process what it even means to have read all these books. What have I retained over the span of 9 years? I don’t have a background in political science. I’m not planning to write a dissertation. I’m an average American woman who hasn’t even lived in the US for the past 6 years. It sort of feels like I’d need to read another 50 books to crack some kind of leadership code, but I’m also not sure one exists.
I agree that research is critical. I love learning about liberation tactics and long histories of resistance that ground leadership in everyday people. For example, I appreciate these strategies from The Anti-Fascist Handbook by Mark Bray, where he reviews tried-and-true antifa approaches from around the globe in the last century or so:
Understand what you’re fighting against: white supremacy, hetero-patriarchy, class oppression and genocide
Make joyful noise - literally, drown out fascists
Organize events; organize for others’ political education
Support vulnerable and targeted groups directly with mutual aid
Dox, disown, demand cancellations, disrupt public platforms where harm is the agenda
Leverage working class self-defense, aka ‘punch a Nazi’
Infiltrate and sabotage from within
This conversation can also be found on Cee's Medium.
Marie joins a handful of people, like Dalton Valette, aka the President Guy, who have committed to learning about each executive. Valette has prepared a list of over 100 books on Reading the Presidents for serious readers who want to take on a mammoth project. You can also find shorter lists on more specific presidential themes from FiveBooks.com.
Next year, Cee and Marie will host a reading challenge on #StudyingDemocracy - with one book each month. We’ve combined a handful of Marie’s recommended titles with Cee’s broader interest in democracy.