Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America 1789-1989 (Abridged)

by Michael R. Beschloss Narrated by Michael R. Beschloss

Overview

From the acclaimed bestselling author of The Conquerors comes a brilliantly readable and inspiring saga about crucial times in America's history when a courageous president dramatically changed the future of the United States.

With surprising new sources and a dazzling command of history and human character, Michael Beschloss brings to life the flawed, complex men who changed America's history. From George Washington, braving threats of impeachment and assassination to make peace with England, to John Adams, incurring his party's unrelenting hatred by refusing to fight France, and from Andrew Jackson, in a death struggle against the corrupt Bank of the United States, to Abraham Lincoln, risking his Presidency to insist that slaves be freed, Beschloss provides an intimate, behind-the-scenes view of presidents coping with the supreme dilemmas of their lives.

Gripping and important, Presidential Courage reveals that none of these presidents were eager to incur ridicule, vilification, or threats of political destruction and even assassination. But in the end, bolstered by friends and family, hidden private beliefs, and faith, each ultimately proved himself to be, in Andrew Jackson's words, "born for the storm."

Editorial Reviews

OCT/ NOV 07 - AudioFile

Historian Michael Beschloss offers vignettes on the courage of various American presidents from Washington to Reagan. Some of the stories are well known to educated citizens; some are not. Andrew Jackson, for example, hounded the Bank of the United States out of business (well known) while under immense pressure from the business establishment (nicely detailed here). Beschloss is careful and well paced in his role as narrator, rarely showing emotion and pronouncing every name and foreign phrase with precision. His baritone, a little sonorous, carries the stories along comfortably. He avoids the trap of dramatizing these glimpses into the past—it just wouldn’t work with a book such as this. Overall, he does a decent job. D.R.W. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

OCT/NOV 07 - AudioFile

Historian Michael Beschloss offers vignettes on the courage of various American presidents from Washington to Reagan. Some of the stories are well known to educated citizens; some are not. Andrew Jackson, for example, hounded the Bank of the United States out of business (well known) while under immense pressure from the business establishment (nicely detailed here). Beschloss is careful and well paced in his role as narrator, rarely showing emotion and pronouncing every name and foreign phrase with precision. His baritone, a little sonorous, carries the stories along comfortably. He avoids the trap of dramatizing these glimpses into the past—it just wouldn’t work with a book such as this. Overall, he does a decent job. D.R.W. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170682904
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	05/08/2007
Series:	Gift for History Buffs
Edition description:	Abridged

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