The Reader's Companion to the American Presidency - Hardcover

Editors Alan Brinkley and Davis Dyer have compiled an excellent reference volume with The Reader's Companion to the American Presidency, a set of intelligent minibiographies on the commanders in chief. Everyone gets his due, from George Washington to Bill Clinton (whose entry is current enough to cover his impeachment in 1998 and Senate trial in 1999). Even William Henry Harrison, the man who served for only a month--he reportedly caught a fatal cold at his inauguration--receives seven pages of attention. "If Harrison's presidency was insignificant," writes Marc W. Kruman, "his pursuit of the office transformed the history of American presidential elections." Several of the contributors offer reduced versions of full-length biographies they have already written, such as William McFeely on Ulysses S. Grant and Robert Dallek on Lyndon B. Johnson. Some of the authors editorialize only casually, while others come down hard on their subjects, such as Roger Morris on Richard Nixon: "There was also something dark and ugly about his long and never peaceful public career, in which muck and money were inescapable, inseparable from politics or policy." By and large, however, the entries are respectful each is a good summary of its man, and all include a brief bibliographic note suggesting to readers where they can go to learn more. The Reader's Companion to the American Presidency is a welcome addition to any personal library on U.S. history. --John J. Miller

Alan Brinkley is university provost and the Allan Nevins Professor of History at Columbia University. He is the author of, among other works, Voices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin, and the Great Depression, which received the National Book Award.