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American Presidents Series

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 Very nice site on this series.  Seems like Sean Wilentz has taken over for Schlesinger.

Comments

  1. avrdsJanuary 11, 2010 at 3:34 PM

    Nice, thanks. This seems like a good series to read regardless of other bios I might pick up.

    Just looked at the "eminent lives" series, but it appears to only cover a handful of presidents. Beethoven and de Tocqueville and others are also in there.

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  2. JAbelJanuary 12, 2010 at 5:31 AM

    Don't know where to post this but it is an eminent life.American Masters on PBS tonight opens season 23 with Sam Cooke.

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  3. James FergusonJanuary 12, 2010 at 7:53 AM

    You can always make a post of your own, bo.

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  4. JAbelJanuary 12, 2010 at 8:20 AM

    Yes I could and as a bonus they went right into an hour on Marvin Gaye but I have the feeling these have been on before.

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  5. JAbelJanuary 12, 2010 at 8:34 AM

    Okay last post on this but the Sam Cooke was new even though I've heard most of it before.The Marvin Gaye is from 2008 and to tie it in to the thread one of the persons interviewed on the Sam Cooke show was Jimmy Carter of the Blind Boys of Alabama.

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  6. James FergusonJanuary 16, 2010 at 11:06 AM

    I was looking at some of the other titles in the series, and it was interesting to see that Douglas Brinkley chose to write on Ford and not Carter, who he devoted quite a bit of energy to in Unfinished Presidency. Not to mention, Carter's presidency was much interesting than Ford's.

    Doctorow on Lincoln should be interesting.

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  7. James FergusonJanuary 16, 2010 at 12:04 PM

    Seems like McGovern got Lincoln in the end,

    http://www.americanpresidentsseries.com/bookpage.asp?NUM=16

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  8. avrdsJanuary 16, 2010 at 4:41 PM

    I love the choices of some of the authors. I think that's what makes the series unique. I almost picked up the McGovern one when I was on the Lincoln reading binge, but for some reason changed my mind. Probably because I read the McPherson mini-bio instead (which wasn't very good).

    I would be up to reading as many in the series as others are interested in. And if Robert can check in from time to time all the better. My guess is he's read all of them up to six or nine months ago.

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  9. James FergusonJanuary 17, 2010 at 11:35 AM

    I'm already finding in reading Madison that there is more I want to read on Madison. These books are fine introductions to a president, but as their brevity suggests, only scratch the surface.

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