While Team of Rivals is an excellent book, I don’t view it as a bio of Lincoln. Throughout most of its history, American politics has been dominated by political parties. Once I get that far there may be a widely accepted “definitive” bio for each, but until then I plan on choosing one of each from these lists. © 2000-2019 Sandbox Networks, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Find image index and biographical information on all of the U.S. Presidents, from 1789 to the present. The president of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States, indirectly elected to a 4-year term by the people through the Electoral College. Of those who have served as the nation's president, four died in office of natural causes (William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Warren G. Harding, and Franklin D. Roosevelt), four were assassinated (Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy), and one resigned (Richard Nixon, facing impeachment). When he ran for reelection in 1864, Republican Abraham Lincoln formed a bipartisan. I had this same thought yesterday and just started searching this morning for recommended titles. The 1796 presidential election was the first contested American presidential election and the only one in which a president and vice president were elected from opposing political parties. The Twenty-fifth Amendment to the Constitution put Tyler's precedent into law in 1967. What better day to jump into the amazing world of presidential biographies. Millard Fillmore: Biography of a President By Robert J. Rayback Fillmore was the last president to come out of the Whig Party, which, while having long since faded into history, was a major force in American politics for decades. The Constitution is silent on the issue of political parties, and at the time it came into force in 1789, there were no parties. I also reviewed Chris Cillizza’s list compiled from recommendations from readers of The Fix (Washington Post) which I found helpful. Upon the resignation of 37th president Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford became the 38th president even though he simply served out the remainder of Nixon's second term and was never elected to the presidency in his own right. Near the end of his presidency, Johnson rejoined the Democratic Party. I heard the Zachary Taylor one I chose is, for lack of better term, dry, so I’ll read Holman’s in its place. 1), To the End of a Career (Grover Cleveland A Study in Courage, Vol. For more information on our use of cookies and usage policies, please visit our PRIVACY POLICY. Soon after the 1st Congress convened, factions began rallying around dominant Washington administration officials, such as Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. Richard Nixon was the first president to fill a vacancy under this provision when he selected Gerald Ford for the office following Spiro Agnew's resignation in 1973. Greatly concerned about the capacity of political parties to destroy the fragile unity holding the nation together, Washington remained unaffiliated with any political faction or party throughout his eight-year presidency. over McFeely. While president, Johnson tried and failed to build a party of loyalists under the National Union banner. It’s been exactly one year since I started and I’ve only finished four, but I have read at least a dozen books in addition to the biographies. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. As no mechanism existed for filling an intra-term vacancy in the vice presidency before 1967, the office was left vacant until filled through the next ensuing presidential election and subsequent inauguration. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2012/12/05/the-best-of-the-best-presidential-biographies-2/ He was, and remains, the only U.S. president never affiliated with a political party.[2]. I plan on using your list as my own, and I just wondered what criteria you used. My shelf of presidential biographies has expanded to over 220 books, but I am learning some should be discarded as of lesser merit. 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