Sex Lives of the Presidents: An Irreverent Expose of the Chief Executive from George Washington to the Present Day

by Nigel Cawthorne

Recounts some of the scandals associated with the private lives of the presidents, including rumors of love affairs, illegitimate children, and other episodes

Genres: History, Nonfiction

292 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1996

About the author

Nigel Cawthorne is an Anglo-American writer of fiction and non-fiction, and an editor. He has written more than 80 books on a wide range of subjects and has contributed to The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph Daily Mail and The New York Times. He has appeared on television and BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Many of Nigel Cawthorne's books are compilations of popular history, without footnotes, references or bibliographies. His own web site refers to a description of his home as a "book-writing factory" and says, "More than half my books were commissioned by publishers and packagers for a flat fee or for a for a reduced royalty".

One of his most notable works was Taking Back My Name, an autobiography of Ike Turner, with whom he spent a number of weeks working with him on, taking up residence in Turner's house. The book caused much controversy, resulting in court cases for three years following its release.

Cawthorne currently lives in Bloomsbury, London with his girlfriend and son, Colin (born 1982).

Reviews

[Fifi · Rating 4 out of 5]

How to become a U.S. President? Be a dirty old man!

Idk how historically accurate any of this but it was fun to read about the sexually promiscuous activities taking place both in and out of the white house.

⭐⭐⭐⭐
🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲

[Jordan Kinsey]

Not that great. More educational than entertaining. I will say this: after reading the Kennedy chapter, I had an overwhelming urge to bathe and take penicillin.

[Jamie Pancake · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has a little bit of everything in it, some history facts, some gossip, and some personal information about people we would normally only hear a few facts about in passing in history class--if we are young enough to be in school. Not only do we learn about some of the mistresses of the presidents throughout history, but also the lengths that were taken to cover up some of the indiscretions of our nation's leaders. While reading this book, I learned a lot, most of the information in it cannot be found too many other places.

[Douglas Boren · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this was more educational than entertaining, it held my interest throughout. It's hard to believe all the allegations even back to Washington, Adams, and Jefferson. The author methodically included, for better or worse, every president right on up to and including Clinton. It seems to be non-partisan, which was nice.

[Ria]

Read this as if you are picking up a People magazine or watching ET. He does cycle through all the presents up until Bill Clinton. Lots of gossip, most trawled from unofficial biographies, bit grey on if all the facts are true for some as it was hard to verify. JFK as suspected has the largest chapter. Quite a bit of history included and not as explicit as the cover might lead you to believe

[Adrian · Rating 3 out of 5]

About what I expected.... trash rag title and subject yet somewhat interesting and informative. Mostly sensationalized garbage though

[Roxana Miret · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eye-opening...

[Stefanie Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about the affairs, girlfriends, and wives of presidents of the United States of America. It seems like there was never a faithful or monogamous president, but certainly it wasn't as big of a deal to the public because the press ignored it for many years. I have read better books than this one on this subject, but it was an okay book. My biggest complaint is that it seemed so sensationalized instead of just presenting the facts and evidence.

[Chrissy Evans · Rating 1 out of 5]

Review: It was fairly well-researched from what I could tell, but I only picked it up because our local library's American History section has about 3 books on offer.
What I learned: Warren G Harding was a dirty dog.

[Marko]

I have the german translation.