Michael Beschloss's dramatic and inspiring saga explores crucial
times when a courageous President changed the history of the United
States. With surprising new sources and a dazzling command of history
and human character, Beschloss brings these flawed, complex men -- and
their wives, families, friends and foes -- to life as if in a gripping
novel. Never have we had a more intimate, behind-the-scenes view of
Presidents coping with the supreme dilemmas of their lives.
In Presidential Courage
you will witness George Washington braving threats of impeachment and
assassination to make peace with England; John Adams, incurring his
party's "unrelenting hatred" by refusing to fight France and warning,
"Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war;" Andrew Jackson, in a death
struggle against the corrupt Bank of the United States; Abraham Lincoln,
risking his Presidency to insist that slaves be freed, as well as the
crushing ordeals faced by Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman,
John Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan.
As Beschloss shows, none of
these Presidents was eager to incur ridicule, vilification or threats of
political destruction and even assassination. But in the end, each
ultimately proved himself to be, in Andrew Jackson's words, "born for
the storm."
About the Author
Michael Beschloss has been called "the nation's leading Presidential historian" by Newsweek. He has written eight books on American Presidents and is NBC News Presidential Historian, as well as contributor to PBS's The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and two sons.
