The American Presidents

"I regard The American Presidents Series as an exciting educational opportunity, telling the history of the United States in terms of forty-two men who at one time or another led — or misled — the republic."
—Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

Times Books, an imprint of Henry Holt and Company, is the publisher of the landmark series The American Presidents. The acclaimed presidential historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., served as general series editor until his death in February 2007. Sean Wilentz, the distinguished Princeton University historian, has taken over the reins as series editor. It is the aim of the series to present the grand panorama of our chief executives in volumes compact enough for the busy reader, lucid enough for the scholar. Each volume will be an incisive, meditation-length biographical essay that focuses on the subject's presidency, even as it offers a distillation of his life, character, and career.

To undertake the biographies of the American Presidents, Times Books has engaged a wide variety of distinguished contributors, including Garry Wills on James Madison, John Dean on Warren G. Harding, Douglas Brinkley on Gerald R. Ford, and Joyce Appleby on Thomas Jefferson.

The American Presidents Series will present the forty-two Americans who have served as president, to help tell the story of a nation.