The President's First Year: None Were Prepared, Some Never Learned - Why the Only School for Presidents is the Presidency

by Douglas Cohn

A fascinating new angle on presidential history, assessing the performances of all 44 presidents in their freshman year of the toughest job in the world. Grouped by the issues the new presidents confronted in their first years in office, the book takes readers into the history, thought processes, and results on a case-by-case basis, including how the presidents’ subsequent actions proved that they learned (or didn’t learn) from their mistakes. From George Washington to Barack Obama, The President’s First Year details the challenging first twelve months of all our presidents’ tenures.

Genres: History, Politics, American History, Nonfiction

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 15, 2016

Reviews

[Jesse · Rating 2 out of 5]

A promising premise marred by poor planning. The object of the book is ostensibly to examine the first year of each of the first 44 presidents, an initially intriguing object. While the author does this, looking at the frequent blunders and rare successes in the early parts of each presidency, he takes, in my opinion, an overly wide historical perspective. By that, I mean to say that he reports not only the first, or "freshman," year (the term also used of legislators and appropriated for the Executive) of each President, but also looks at the events that led up to that year, sometimes going back a decade or more, and often giving a detailed account of the balance of his term in office. The context provided is usually interesting, but I would have preferred a more detailed and pinpoint examination of what each President did, or did not do, in the first 365 days of his Presidency. This problem of wide reporting is compounded by the peculiar--no, the downright strange way in which the presidents are broken up. Instead of a linear historical path traced from Washington to Obama, the author groups Presidents into arbitrary categories, such as loner Presidents (Jefferson, Carter, Obama), witchhunters (Adams and Eisenhower), some general presidents (Harrison, Grant, Hayes), and of course many others. While these men may have had some things in common, in the end, as the author himself says repeatedly, no Presidency is a copy of another. Each is unique from its beginning, and therefore to bunch some of them together in this way proves merely distracting instead of enlightening. There is too many variables to properly compare and contrast so many different men and circumstances. This mean that the chapters fly here and there throughout history, from Civil War to the Great Depression, back to Nullification, jumping to the Panic of 1893 to the civil rights movement. The lack of historical continuity makes it very difficult to follow trends, to trace the evolution of the country or the presidency, or to even gain bearings on whichever president we come to next. This is truly unfortunate, for Cohn has a good style and has done much work to compile the vast amount of activities and actions that accompanied 44 presidents (though William Henry Harrison's chapter wasn't very long).

[marky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this up for a research project since I couldn’t find anything else in my library that documented all the presidents of the United States. I was looking for a quick run down of each president and their contributions (I’m not American). What I ended up reading was an exploration of the presidents and their first year mistakes, which I found most interesting.

A lot of the political jargon was lost on me (especially the economics) and I am horrible with names, but I throughly enjoyed this book and thought the author had some nice insight on the system of American presidency and puts into perspective the weight of the presidency. Really makes me wish there could be some onboarding courses by the former presidents- I’d take one for sure! (though I’d certainly be a horrible president) I also found the author’s anecdotes to be quite interesting, especially the one about Warren Rogers. Since it mainly discusses the first year blunders of provides a side of the presidency that is rarely discussed- overshadowed by a president’s final legacy- and concise enough to stay on track. I’m no expert on the topic so I can’t say if anything was skewed or incorrect, but I thought it gave a very balanced view of each president. Knowing the mistakes makes them all feel more human, I suppose.

Ultimately, a nice read if you know nothing about the American presidents, and probably a better one if you do.

[Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really interesting read. Some presidents loom large in our collective conscience because of the things they did over their presidency, but it was interesting to look at specifically the first years of each president's presidency, because most of them... weren't great. Each president is put in a group with other presidents with similar issues during their first year, and the way they were grouped gave a really interesting context to their first years. For example, one grouping had Thomas Jefferson, Jimmy Carter, and Barack Obama. They were together because the author contends each thought he was the smartest person in the room (and likely was) and thus they didn't listen enough to their advisors during their first years. While I don't think I would put those three in a group for really any reason, it made the legacies of their first years memorable to me.
Another insight I found particularly interesting was that Kennedy's failures his first year (Bay of Pigs) actually prepared him to handle the Cuban Missile Crisis in the way he did. Had he not gone through that humiliation, he might have made other decisions that led to actual nuclear war.
We won't know for several years what the legacies of the current president and former president's first years will be, but this book provided a fascinating lens through which to try to compare them to their predecessors.

[Yosef Shapiro · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book looks at the first year of all of the Presidents. Every job has a learning curve. But, no job has a sharper curve than this one. Presidents do learn from their mistakes. But, often mistakes in the first year of the term set the tone for the rest of the term. It was an interesting read. I am not sure that I agreed with all of the conclusions the author makes.

[Jeremy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is a mess. It purports to examine the first year of each presidency and find some lessons. It finds pablum. It draws out almost no patterns of meaning. It is useful only as a broad introduction to the political circumstances each president faced upon inauguration, but is so idiosyncratic and undisciplined in its focus that it allows the reader to figure out almost nothing useful about first years. It tells very little about each president that a standard biography would not already tell better, and what is new here is often a strange exposition on one particular aspect that drew the author's attention, in a few cases in ways that burnish his reputation as an insider, a reputation mostly unjustified. So what is new is seldom worth reading. He doesn't even remain focused only on the first year in many cases, drawing in incidents from well beyond it whenever it suits his fancy. One of its sole virtues is its remarkable short length. Each chapter on each president is brief, so it is all over quickly.

[Dominic · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like the idea behind Douglas Cohn’s “The President’s First Year.” It’s famously said that no job can prepare you for the presidency, but there’s far too little attention paid to how presidents learn – or fail to learn – on the job. As we prepare to vote for the 45th president, it’s worth thinking about the types of mistakes previous presidents made during their freshman year and how to avoid them.

The book features short vignettes of every single president’s first year in office. Cohn tries to link presidents together by theme or issue, such as war, taxes, reform, temperament etc. At its best, this allows Cohn to make some interesting comparisons between presidents from different eras, such as the way both Tyler and Eisenhower failed at politicking. When Cohn sticks to this premise, he presents truly insightful analysis of presidential decision-making, such as George W. Bush’s failure to work through the chain of command during the 9/11 attacks.

Unfortunately, the book seems to stray from its proposed focus more often than not. Cohn often ventures into decisions that occurred during the president’s second or third year. For example, his chapters on Wilson and FDR spend considerable time talking about military preparedness for war, issues that were simply not as relevant in 1913 or 1933, respectively.

I suspect this book will probably appeal more to general readers interested in U.S. presidential history, rather than experts. By necessity, Cohn only spends a few pages with each president. This can make the book feel superficial for readers who have read in-depth biographies of these presidents. For example, Cohn repeats the assertion Eisenhower and Nixon did not get along, which Irwin Gellman disproved in “The President and the Apprentice”. Still, it’s hard to blame Cohn for accepting the conventional wisdom in some cases given the breadth of this book.

Ultimately, this Cohn’s book works more like a “chef’s tour” of inaugural presidential terms.

[I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review]

[Dominic · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like the idea behind Douglas Cohn’s “The President’s First Year.” It’s famously said that no job can prepare you for the presidency, but there’s far too little attention paid to how presidents learn – or fail to learn – on the job. As we prepare to vote for the 45th president, it’s worth thinking about the types of mistakes previous presidents made during their freshman year and how to avoid them.

The book features short vignettes of every single president’s first year in office. Cohn tries to link presidents together by theme or issue, such as war, taxes, reform, temperament etc. At its best, this allows Cohn to make some interesting comparisons between presidents from different eras, such as the way both Tyler and Eisenhower failed at politicking. When Cohn sticks to this premise, he presents truly insightful analysis of presidential decision-making, such as George W. Bush’s failure to work through the chain of command during the 9/11 attacks.

Unfortunately, the book seems to stray from its proposed focus more often than not. Cohn often ventures into decisions that occurred during the president’s second or third year. For example, his chapters on Wilson and FDR spend considerable time talking about military preparedness for war, issues that were simply not as relevant in 1913 or 1933, respectively.

I suspect this book will probably appeal more to general readers interested in U.S. presidential history, rather than experts. By necessity, Cohn only spends a few pages with each president. This can make the book feel superficial for readers who have read in-depth biographies of these presidents. For example, Cohn repeats the assertion Eisenhower and Nixon did not get along, which Irwin Gellman disproved in “The President and the Apprentice”. Still, it’s hard to blame Cohn for accepting the conventional wisdom in some cases given the breadth of this book.

Ultimately, this Cohn’s book works more like a “chef’s tour” of inaugural presidential terms.

[I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review]

[Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good. Could've gone into further detail about the repercussions the presidents faced after their presidency end.

[Margaret Kenney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cohn is a West Point graduate and shares history from an interesting perspective. Covering all of the Presidents in one book was a very ambitious project, but the book is interesting and educational. Cohn manages to incorporate facts that are often omitted in a typical history classroom. Included for each President are the education, occupation, political party, government service, military service, and brief information about the President's predecessor. It's followed by a narrative about that President's first year. Primary sources are often used by the author, and a bibliography is included. I would recommend this book to anyone who has even a passing interest in U.S. history.

[Aloysius · Rating 2 out of 5]

I came into this book excited to learn some new history about the early days of each president's terms and the challenges they faced. I was ... underwhelmed, to say the least. There is no real rhyme or reason to the arrangement, and I have some sharp disagreements with the author as to the "mistakes" of and circumstances around the presidents' decisions, such as the cause of the Civil War and Obama's exit from Iraq. Still, there is some useful information around to be gleaned, and as Cohn himself said, the biggest takeaway from this book is that there is no way to prepare for the presidency until you're on the job yourself.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was an interesting idea for a book, but the content left me wanting more. There's not much to this book you couldn't find browsing Wikipedia for a couple of hours. The order of the text was strange. I'd be reading along and then the narrative would...Hey Squirrel! I'm going to recommend you read this book only if you know nothing about presidential history.

[Jennie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. The structure of this made it hard for me to engage. I expected a past-to-present order, but it jumped around, lumping presidents based on (some rather thin connections) themes or similar situations.