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

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."


About the Author
Michael Beschloss has been called "the nation's leading Presidential historian" by Newsweek. He has written nine 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.