Review...“Brave Leaders and How They Changed America 1789-1989”

By Greta Michaels, Library Committee
Originally published in the February 2020 issue of the 1666 Coffman Newsletter

How do we judge our leaders? Historian Michael Beschloss’s statement when describing FDR is that “a president’s job is not to follow the public but to lead it.”

The author looks at the responses of presidents to situations that were probable sources of political damage to them personally.

In very readable chapters, Beschloss considers these men and the problems they faced: Washington and the Jay Treaty; John Adams and possible war with France; Jackson and the Biddle Bank; Lincoln and emancipation, the draft, and the election of 1864; Teddy Roosevelt and the trusts; FDR and involvement in World War II; Truman and the recognition of Israel; JFK and civil rights; Reagan and detente with the USSR.