The presidents club : inside the world's most exclusive fraternity

"This is essential reading for anyone interested in American politics." --Robert Dallek, bestselling author of "An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963" ""The Presidents Club "is magnetically readable, bursting with new information and behind-the-scenes details. It is also an important contribution to history, illuminating the event-making private relationships among our ex-Presidents and why we should do a far better job of drawing on their skills and experience." --Michael Beschloss, bestselling author of" The Conquerers" "Forget Rome's Curia, Yale's Skull and Bones and the Bilderbergs--the world's most exclusive club never numbers more than six. . . . Michael Duffy and Nancy Gibbs have penetrated thick walls of secrecy and decorum to give us the most intimate, revealing, and poignant account of the constitutional fifth wheel that is the ex-presidency. Readers are in for some major surprises, not to mention a history they won't be able to put down." --Richard Norton Smith, author of "Patriarch: George Washington and the New American Nation" "Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy have given us a great gift: a deeply reported, highly original, and wonderfully written exploration of a much-overlooked part of American history. The tiny world of U.S. presidents is our Olympus, and Gibbs and Duffy have chronicled the intimacies and rivalries of the gods." --Jon Meacham, bestselling author of "American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House" "This is a brilliant idea for a book, wonderfully written! At Eisenhower's inauguration, Hoover and Truman half-jokingly decided to form a 'President's Club.' With surprising reporting and insights, this book reveals the relationships and rivalries among the few men who know what it's like to be president. It gives a new angle on history by exploring the essence of the presidency." --Walter Isaacson, bestselling author of "Steve Jobs "and "Benjamin Franklin" "Michael Duffy and Nancy Gibbs have taken us inside one of the most powerful and unusual families in American life--the brotherhood of former presidents of the United States. Political junkies, historians, psychologists and main street citizens will find the tales of friendship, envy, conspiracy, competition and common cause irresistible." --Tom Brokaw, bestselling author of" The Greatest Generation" "Michael Duffy and Nancy Gibbs offer more than a fresh and fascinating first look at the world's most exclusive men's club. It's a book of real substance about clashing egos and strange bedfellows at the top." --Jonathan Alter, bestselling author of "The Promise" "With their knowledge of the territory of presidential politics and personality, Gibbs and Duffy assemble a compelling account . . . [and] show that collisions of ego, personality and politics can often result in creation, not destruction." --"Kirkus Reviews "(starred) ""The Presidents Club" is fascinating! If you are fascinated by history, politics, current events . . . or even appreciate reading books that are written beautifully, get this one." --Greta Van Susteren "A fabulous book . . . I absolutely love it." --Greta Van Susteren, FOX News ""The Presidents Club" is a lucid and well-written glimpse into the modern presidency and its self-sustaining shadow organization. It's worth reading and rereading for its behind-the-scenes insights." --"USA Today" "This is a great scoop . . . Amazing." --Chris Matthews, NBC Read more...