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    Accidental Presidents: Eight Men Who Changed America
    Accidental Presidents: Eight Men Who Changed America
    Accidental Presidents: Eight Men Who Changed America
    Audiobook16 hours

    Accidental Presidents: Eight Men Who Changed America

    Written by Jared Cohen

    Narrated by Arthur Morey

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    This New York Times bestselling “deep dive into the terms of eight former presidents is chock-full of political hijinks—and déjà vu” (Vanity Fair) and provides a fascinating look at the men who came to the office without being elected to it, showing how each affected the nation and world.

    The strength and prestige of the American presidency has waxed and waned since George Washington. Eight men have succeeded to the presidency when the incumbent died in office. In one way or another they vastly changed our history. Only Theodore Roosevelt would have been elected in his own right. Only TR, Truman, Coolidge, and LBJ were re-elected.

    John Tyler succeeded William Henry Harrison who died 30 days into his term. He was kicked out of his party and became the first president threatened with impeachment. Millard Fillmore succeeded esteemed General Zachary Taylor. He immediately sacked the entire cabinet and delayed an inevitable Civil War by standing with Henry Clay’s compromise of 1850. Andrew Johnson, who succeeded our greatest president, sided with remnants of the Confederacy in Reconstruction. Chester Arthur, the embodiment of the spoils system, was so reviled as James Garfield’s successor that he had to defend himself against plotting Garfield’s assassination; but he reformed the civil service. Theodore Roosevelt broke up the trusts. Calvin Coolidge silently cooled down the Harding scandals and preserved the White House for the Republican Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression. Harry Truman surprised everybody when he succeeded the great FDR and proved an able and accomplished president. Lyndon B. Johnson was named to deliver Texas electorally. He led the nation forward on Civil Rights but failed on Vietnam.

    Accidental Presidents shows that “history unfolds in death as well as in life” (The Wall Street Journal) and adds immeasurably to our understanding of the power and limits of the American presidency in critical times.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateApr 9, 2019
    ISBN9781508252757
    Author

    Jared Cohen

    Jared Cohen is the president of global affairs and cohead of applied innovation at Goldman Sachs, where he joined as a partner and member of the firm’s management committee in 2022. Before joining Goldman Sachs, he was CEO of Jigsaw, which he founded at Alphabet Inc. in 2016.  Prior to that, he was Google’s first director of ideas and chief advisor to Google’s chief executive officer and executive chairman Eric Schmidt. From 2006 to 2010, he served as a member of the Secretary of State’s policy planning staff and as a close advisor to both Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton. He is a New York Times bestselling author of five books, most recently Accidental Presidents: Eight Men Who Changed America. He has been named to the Time 100 list, Foreign Policy’s “Top 100 Global Thinkers,” and Fortune’s “40 Under 40.” He lives in New York City with his wife and three daughters.

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    Reviews for Accidental Presidents

    4.5/5

    98 ratings6 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This was a review of our (American) political history. The focus is on the office of Vice President. When a candidate is chosen the discussion focus on selecting a running mate. The discussion does not focus on finding a person who was qualified to govern, but rather the appeal (but not too much), where they live (anywhere the presidential candidate lives), attractive presence (but not more than the presidential candidate). Once in office, the 8 Vice Presidents were ran the senate but were kept in the dark in policy matters, like international affairs. Predictably, problems arose. Each chapter focuses on a person who became president unexpectedly. I learned a lot.
    • 5/5
      Very informative and interesting, great voice actor x x x.
    • 5/5
      Very well researched and written. Surprisingly interesting all the way through.
    • 5/5
      Terrific review of American history. Well researched. Interesting not well known facts.
    • 5/5
      A truly fascinating and readable take on the political function of the Vice President. Truly God works in a mysterious way His wonders to perform as is seen in the history of the “accidental Presidents”
    • 4/5
      Even though I consider myself to be well versed in the category of Presidential history, I was pleasantly pleased (and surprised) by the number of nuggets of knowledge that I picked from this outstanding book on our country's eight accidental Presidents.Author Jared Cohen has created an extremely readable book on the stories surrounding the Vice Presidents who succeeded our country's leader after his death in office. Those interested in Presidential history will certainly enjoy, and appreciate, the painstaking research and use of primary sources Cohen cited to create this book.