Challenges opinions about the Civil War general's presidency, explaining how Grant enabled the country to achieve a sense of post-war calm and applied constructive political strategies in favor of less effective occupation tactics.

This multiple biography is centered on Lincoln's mastery of men and how it shaped the most significant presidency in the nation's history. Historian Goodwin illuminates Lincoln's political genius, as the one-term congressman rises from obscurity to prevail over three gifted rivals to become president. When Lincoln emerged as the victor at the Republican National Convention, his rivals were dismayed. Throughout the turbulent 1850s, each had energetically...

The struggle to preserve the Republic has never been easy or without perils. The rise of conflicting political parties, which the founders opposed, and President John Adams' Alien and Sedition Acts repressing First Amendment rights made Franklin's observation at the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention-za republic, if you can keep ity-seem prescient. In the twentieth century, America endured numerous struggles: economic depression, World War...

"How Dwight D. Eisenhower led America through a transformational time-by a DC policy strategist, security expert and his granddaughter. Few people have made decisions as momentous as Eisenhower, nor has one person had to make such a varied range of them. From D-Day to Little Rock, from the Korean War to Cold War crises, from the Red Scare to the Missile Gap controversies, Ike was able to give our country eight years of peace and prosperity by relying...

Simple text introduces the beginning reader to the qualities of leadership, and the kinds of positions where leadership abilities are needed.

Before he became "the Father of our Country," George Washington was the Father of the American Army. He took an army that had no experience, no tradition, and no training, and fought a protracted war against the best, most disciplined force in the world-the British Army. Deftly handling the political realm, Washington convinced Congress to keep his army supplied-a difficult task when the country was really just a loose confederation of states with...

Are leaders born or made? Where does ambition come from? How does adversity affect the growth of leadership? Does the leader make the times or do the times make the leader? Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin draws upon the four presidents she has studied most closely -- Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson (in civil rights) -- to show how they recognized leadership qualities within themselves and were recognized...

How a young general shaped a nation — a fascinating account of George Washington as he faced a war and came out as America's first president

The American Revolution was won not on the battlefields, but through the mind of George Washington. One of America's founding fathers, Washington's story is one that influenced how our entire nation was built. A compulsively readable narrative and extensive history, George Washington's

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What Obama Means by Jabari Asim, renowned cultural critic and author of The N Word, is a timely and sharp analysis of how the "Obama phenomenon" exhibits progress in American politics and society. A frequent guest and commentator on "The Colbert Report," "The Today Show," NPR's "Diane Rehm Show" and many other media programs, Asim also examines how cultural and political forces led to the watershed 2008 presidential election while indicating what...