Worst. President. Ever., Robert Strauss
Worst. President. Ever., Robert Strauss
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Worst. President. Ever.
James Buchanan, the POTUS Rating Game, and the Legacy of the Least of the Lesser Presidents

Author: Robert Strauss

Narrator: Tom Perkins

Unabridged: 8 hr 51 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 12/27/2016


Synopsis

Worst. President. Ever. flips the great presidential biography on its head, offering an enlightening—and highly entertaining—account of poor James Buchanan's presidency to prove once and for all that, well, few leaders could have done worse.

But author Robert Strauss does much more, leading listeners out of Buchanan's terrible term in office—meddling in the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision, exacerbating the Panic of 1857, helping foment the John Brown uprisings and "Bloody Kansas," virtually inviting a half-dozen states to secede from the Union as a lame duck, and on and on—to explore with insight and humor his own obsession with presidents, and ultimately the entire notion of ranking our presidents. He guides us through the POTUS rating game of historians and others who have made their own Mount Rushmores—or Marianas Trenches—of presidential achievement, showing why Buchanan easily loses to any of the others, but also offering insights into presidential history buffs like himself, the forgotten "lesser" presidential sites, sex and the presidency, the presidency itself, and how and why it can often take the best measures out of even the most dedicated men.

About Robert Strauss

Robert Strauss has been a staffer at Sports Illustrated and the Philadelphia Daily News and has written extensively for the New York Times. He is an adjunct professor of writing in the English department at the University of Pennsylvania; he also managed to play, just barely, Division III freshman basketball and rugby at Carleton College. He lives with his wife, Susan, and daughters, Ella and Sylvia, in Haddonfield, New Jersey.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jean on February 06, 2017

James Buchanan (1791-1868) the 15th President was a Pennsylvanian and a Southern Democrat. According to author, Robert Strauss, he was the worst president ever. Strauss states he meddled in the Supreme Court decision in the matter of a runaway slave Dred Scott. Strauss states Buchanan managed to tra......more

Goodreads review by Bill on December 18, 2021

I somewhat reluctantly give this two stars, because the author seems like a genuinely nice guy - I admire his enthusiasm for the presidency and his ambition in writing a book about it. But I just have to say, in the nicest possible way, that I'm not sure why this book exists. It is essentially a com......more

Goodreads review by Nancy on November 19, 2016

I am hoping that reading a bunch of biographies of the worst presidents will make me feel better about the president-elect. This one did not work. I'm still horrified.......more

Goodreads review by Jim on October 13, 2020

I recently read Great Presidents, one of The Great Courses by Allan J. Lichtman, so I thought a contrast would be good when it caught my eye. It was, although I found the presidential rating game rather arbitrary. Strauss makes a case for Polk being one of the worst saying he didn't do much, it was......more

Goodreads review by Dave on July 31, 2016

I received a complimentary copy of Worst. President. Ever. from Rowman & Littlefield in an exchange for an honest evaluation of its merits. And, toward that end, I can say I loved this book. A bit of a presidential history nut myself (McCullough and Brands are my favorite writers in the genre), I mu......more