Having gotten Obama's memior for Xmas, I was struck at how quickly it grabs you.
Which got me thinking about how well does the intro stand up to past presidential autobiographies and memoirs...
...There have been 16 presidential autobiographies and memoirs, covering that time in office (I'm not counting Grant's, which, while celebrated, is a war memoir from a general).
Here's how they begin...
Jefferson
Van Buren
Buchanan
Teddy Roosevelt
Coolidge
Hoover
Truman
Eisenhower
LBJ
Nixon
Ford
Carter
Reagan
George H.W. Bush
Clinton
George W. Bush
Obama
While I have your attention, the Truman memoir comes up in the debut episode of my new history podcast “When America Worked.” Please listen, review and subscribe! scherable.com/whenamericawor…
PS, either I miscounted and should have said “17,” or I shouldn’t have included Jefferson since his book doesn’t cover his presidential years.
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My first history podcast episode–about the creation of the UN–begins with a seemingly unrelated scandal: when Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles sexually propositioned porters on FDR's train
This got me thinking, is this the 1st WH gay sex scandal?...
...Before the Sumner Welles incident was the 1919 Newport sex scandal, which involved Navy sailors and implicated FDR as Asst Sec to the Navy en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newport_s… . But didn't involve sexual activity among people in the administration...
...But perhaps the Welles incident shouldn't qualify either because the scandal never became public during FDR's presidency, though it was gossiped about and led to Welles' resignation...
...As I previously showed in this thread, during the final two weeks of 2016, Trump had clear signs of strong momentum in several key states (as well as nationally)...
...But his year, during the same period, Trump has only gained more than 1 point on Biden in AZ, IA and MN. Nationally, there's been a mild tightening, with Biden retaining a healthy lead and 50+% vote share...