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Presidential Trivia: The Ultimate Guide to Little-Known Facts about American Presidents
Fascinating facts, figures, and foibles of the forty-two U.S. presidents and their first ladies. Do you know . . . In Presidential Trivia more than 1,200 unusual, interesting, and little-known facts are assembled in a volume that will tantalize the mind and teach history. It's a handy guide offering more than 200 years of facts about those who have served in the position that is today the most influential one in world politics. Presidential Trivia will encourage readers to learn more about each of the fascinating individuals who have served as president of the United States of America.
196 pages, Paperback
First published February 11, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 25, 2013
Ernie Couch's PRESIDENTIAL TRIVIA is hard. How hard? Take these question, for example: Which president was named for the physician who delivered him?* What Oklahoma Territory Indian reservation did Herbert Hoover spend several years with his uncle?**
The book is in question and answer format, so readers will be treated to nearly 200 pages of a Q&A format. There's no narrative drive, and no real logical progression to the questions either. The book is divided into
four sections: Life Before Presidency (trivia about the backgrounds of presidents), Executing the Office (trivia about happenings while the subject was president), Presidential Households (trivia about families, first ladies), and Presidential Miscellanea (trivia that doesn't clearly fall under other categories). Most of the questions are phrased coherently, but I couldn't help but feel as if they could be reworded to be more fun. For example, instead of asking "Where was John F. Kennedy born?", you could ask "What president was born in Brookline, Massachusetts?". Sure, it makes the question easier, but it also leaves some room for deduction -- if you don't know Brookline, Mass, then there's no way to actually solve it without knowing it from rote memory. But hey, that's just my preference.
The content of this book goes back and forth from the hopelessly obscure to the old classics. PRESIDENTIAL TRIVIA was copyrighted in 1996, so there's no trivia on George W. Bush or Barack Obama. That means you'll miss out on at least one neat piece of trivia: What two presidents share a middle name?***
I would recommend this book to trivia buffs that are hungry for presidential knowledge -- there's sure to be several entries here that you haven't stumbled across yet!
*Chester A. Arthur
**Osage Reservation, Pawhuska
***George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush
The book is in question and answer format, so readers will be treated to nearly 200 pages of a Q&A format. There's no narrative drive, and no real logical progression to the questions either. The book is divided into
four sections: Life Before Presidency (trivia about the backgrounds of presidents), Executing the Office (trivia about happenings while the subject was president), Presidential Households (trivia about families, first ladies), and Presidential Miscellanea (trivia that doesn't clearly fall under other categories). Most of the questions are phrased coherently, but I couldn't help but feel as if they could be reworded to be more fun. For example, instead of asking "Where was John F. Kennedy born?", you could ask "What president was born in Brookline, Massachusetts?". Sure, it makes the question easier, but it also leaves some room for deduction -- if you don't know Brookline, Mass, then there's no way to actually solve it without knowing it from rote memory. But hey, that's just my preference.
The content of this book goes back and forth from the hopelessly obscure to the old classics. PRESIDENTIAL TRIVIA was copyrighted in 1996, so there's no trivia on George W. Bush or Barack Obama. That means you'll miss out on at least one neat piece of trivia: What two presidents share a middle name?***
I would recommend this book to trivia buffs that are hungry for presidential knowledge -- there's sure to be several entries here that you haven't stumbled across yet!
*Chester A. Arthur
**Osage Reservation, Pawhuska
***George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush
December 4, 2013
I will never remember all the trivia facts I read in this book but I really enjoyed learning so many things about the presidents.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews