Thank you, Oxford University Press, for providing this book for review consideration in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Mr. Book just finished Patriot Presidents: From George Washington To John Quincy Adams, by William E. Leuchtenburg.

I have been a fan of Leuchtenburg’s books ever since I was first introduced to them as a history and political science major at Syracuse about 35 years ago. I was surprised to see in the book’s introduction that he is 101 years old and that he wants to see how far he can get in writing a complete history of the presidency. I look forward to seeing how far he can get.

This book does a very good job looking at the first six presidents, from Washington to John Quincy Adams. It looks at both each presidents’ successes and failures as well as their strengths and weaknesses. It was a very unbiased look at the early presidents, one that successfully avoided any hagiography.

The strongest part of the book was the treatment of Jefferson’s character flaws along with his supporter’s defenses of him.

This book did motivate me to add Leuchtenburg’s excellent book, The American President: From Teddy Roosevelt To Bill Clinton to the re-read so I can write a review on it list. (projected ETA of that: some point before the end of the year). Leuchtenburg said the response to that book was what motivated him to want to see how far he could get in a complete history of the presidents.

I give this book an A. Goodreads requires grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, an A equates to 5 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).

This review has been posted at Goodreads and my blog, Mr. Book’s Book Reviews

Mr. Book finished reading this on September 11, 2024.