Which President Killed a Man? : Tantalizing Trivia and Fun Facts About Our Chief Executives and First Ladies

by James C. Humes

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Genres: History, Nonfiction, Presidents, American History

224 pages, Paperback

First published October 23, 2002

About the author

James C. Humes was Ronald Reagan's speechwriter. He also wrote speeches for George H.W. Bush, Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon and Dwight Eisenhower. He has served as a communications advisor to major U.S. corporations, including IBM and DuPont. He is the author of twenty-three other books.

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

" . . . great insights are included in this wonderful omnibus about those who once lived in the White House. It's fun to read and learn at the same time." -- from the foreword by political reporter Helen Thomas

I don't know about the 'insights' part (although I do concur that it's fun to simultaneously read and learn), but Humes' Which President Killed a Man? - now somewhat dated, owing to the original 2004 publication date - was a mildly amusing and adequately informative romp through two centuries of various U.S. commander-in-chiefs. (As far as the answer to the title question, there is actually more than one president with that distinction. Hey now!) For the most part the information discussed / dispersed is less 'high school / college history exam'-worthy and more like the 'will help you win Jeopardy! / Trivial Pursuit / bar bets' variety. Also, the expected big names - Washington, Lincoln, the Roosevelts, Eisenhower, Kennedy, etc. - unsurprisingly get lots of ink, but the author also takes pains to include those less-remembered figures from the 19th and early 20th century for a well-rounded text. Hell, even the first ladies and the less-remembered / oft-thankless VPs get their own chapters.

[Scot · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have always loved trivia, and a collection of intriguing, little known facts about the true lives of former presidents sounds like a wonderful compilation to browse.

Unfortunately, this book disappoints. First, there is a strong political bias that grows increasingly annoying. As one reads along, it becomes clear that the further through the 20th century (and into the 21st—the book came out pre-Obama) the references come, the more likely they are to be hagiographic when talking about a Republican (Reagan, the two Bushes) and smearing by innuendo when the focus is a Democrat (gets bad with Kennedy and is openly virulent against the Clintons). Reading the preface closely should have prepared me for this, perhaps: Humes mentions there he was a speechwriter for Nixon and describes his family growing up as “staunch Republican.” When I want partisan slant that way, I can always go to Fox News—I really don’t want it in a trivia book.

Even more disturbing than the level of bias, though, was the lack of fact checking—a sore problem if your work is supposed to be a compendium of amazing or interesting facts. I realize targeting a general audience means that many bits of basic historical knowledge I thought most people with any interest in history might know already are included, but I noticed basic facts wrong too often and unnecessary, misleading ambiguities. The bibliography at the end suggests this is simply a composite taken from several other trivia books already published, not always checking on the reliability of their facts. A few examples of errors I noticed while reading it to illustrate: The New York World’s Fair at which FDR appeared on early TV was in 1939, not 1929 as listed here. Gerald Ford appeared on the cover of Cosmopolitan in 1942, not 1939, as listed here. When Humes mentions that Calvin Coolidge’s VP, Charles Dawes, wrote “Melody in A Minor” and the pop song “It’s All in the Game” he omits the point that Dawes wrote the former as an instrumental and a guy named Carl Sigman added lyrics to it to create the latter—it isn’t two different songs as Humes suggests. He credits Woodrow Wilson for making “The Star-Spangled Banner” the national anthem, when actually, Congress did so by resolution on March 3, 1931. Wilson issued an executive order to honor it, but it was Hoover’s signature on the resolution that truly made it the national anthem.

If I noticed this many slips just browsing through it, with how much reliability can I truly trust all the trivia he shares that was new to me?

[Arminius · Rating 3 out of 5]

I usually prefer to read Presidential biographies to learn about the policies which shaped America’s great success (such as President Ronald Reagan’s Cold War policy), hindered America (such as FDR’s New Deal), or left disappointing results (such as President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society Program). In “Which President Killed a Man?” I find none of this but still found interesting and fascinating information about the leaders of this great country.

Here are a few examples:

President James Garfield was able to write Greek with his right hand and Latin with his left hand while speaking German.

“The Star Spangled Banner” became our National Anthem in 1917 due to President Woodrow Wilson’s executive order.

President Calvin Coolidge would relax by translating Dante’s Inferno from Medieval Latin to English.

President George Washington has one state, seven mountains, eight streams, ten lakes, thirty-three counties, and one hundred twenty- one towns and villages named for him.

There are hundreds of more anecdotes in this book.

[Peter Sprunger · Rating 1 out of 5]

While I would normally get into this kind of book, I picked up on too many oversights and errors for me to trust the rest of the "facts" presented in this book. The book is poorly researched with only 21 sources which includes 3 books on the first ladies, 14 Presidential biographies (covering only 12 Presidents) and 4 other trivia and/or Presidential fact books.

[Meghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thomas Jefferson Jumpin out of married women's windows- like a boss

[Annie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Book was written before Obama, so anyone thinking of using this in their social studies classroom should be aware that it is a bit out-of-date. Also, I got the impression that the author was quite Republican, based on his harsh facts about the Clintons and skimming over of the atrocities of GWB.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though outdated, it contained a wealth of trivia and facts about the presidents I didn't already know. So few presidents spoke foreign languages; three were licensed pilots; 15 were Masons; 4 were assassinated; 6 others died in office; two were shot but survived. Lincoln was the first president to wear a beard and only eight after him had facial hair. Thomas Jefferson created the first political party, the Democrat-Republican Party. Twenty-eight were one-term presidents while only fifteen served two. FDR was the only president to be elected four times and died in his fourth term. Two presidents, including Washington and Jefferson, had no religious affiliation. Nineteen did not serve in the military. Lincoln was the tallest at 6' 4" but LBJ was a close second standing 6' 3.5". Fascinating tidbits of information.

[Tze Ong · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished reading Which President Killed a Man?,a book about the history of the United States presidents and was written by James C. Humes.In this book the author explained little known trivia and facts of all the former presidents.From their personal hobbies to their first ladies,it taught me little known facts and trivia about our former presidents.The things I dislike about this book is some historic error when i did some research,this is why i am only rating it 3/5 stars.Even though there is some mistake,it is still very interesting to know little known facts about our former presidents and first lady.I will recommend this book for anyone who likes history or facts and trivia.

[Oscar Lilley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I definitely learned many new interesting facts about the president's in this book. I also appreciated the bibliography for further reading. I had my daughter use this book for her first PowerPoint presentation and was happy with the index and the information provided. My only big complaint was much of the book included facts or connections so obscure that they seemed more like page filler than anything else.

[lara phillips · Rating 2 out of 5]

any book like this needs to be scrupulously researched and copy edited. When you make an error like calling Alaska the 50th state (pg 202), it makes me doubt that other less-well known facts have been confirmed.

Second book this year I've read on presidents to mention Grace Coolidge's pet raccoon Rebecca, though.

[Reb · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love little odd facts but…. there were some glaring errors & omissions that I discovered. Alaska is the 49th state not 50th as noted in this book. President Harding didn’t just visit Ketchikan but visited in Fairbanks for the dedication of the Alaska railroad. It also would have been nice if there had been a timeline of the presidents.

[Joshua Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wanted to rate it lower because I thought this a book of short stories, vignettes if you will, about presidents and their possible "misadventures". It is, however; a trivia book albeit a good one. So that's on me not the book.

[Caity · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting mix of fact some that are more commonly known and some fun odd ones. I appreciated that it also includes facts about the Vice Presidents and First Ladies as well.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very entertaining.

[Mary Vanderkooy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this book was fun - just a bunch of random trivia about the presidents.

[Jim Digiovanni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Which President Killed a Man?

Probably several during their military careers. I know the answer to the question posed in the book is Andrew Jackson. But you must assume that many of them must have killed a man. Teddy Roosevelt set it out as a personal goal. By my count 19 presidents gave military service (Including Lincoln in the Kentucky Militia during the Black Foot War)

Here is a reference to all of the Presidents with military service:
http://10presidentialfacts.com/catego...


I picked up this book at Barnes and Noble. Its a great bathroom reader because the facts are quick little snippets. Since the writer, James Humes, was a speech writer for 5 Republican presidents, I couldn’t help but notice that many of the facts for the Democratic presidents tended to be less flattering. He seems especially interested in pointing out all of the embarrassing facts about Bill Clinton in particular. Fair enough…

Mr. Humes does offer many interesting facts about my favorite president Theodore Roosevelt. Probably because Roosevelt was, in my opinion, the most interesting and dynamic American public figure in the last 150 years.

The author did make at least one factual mistake however. In the personal achievements section (p133) His quote on Teddy Roosevelt:

“After he was president, Roosevelt went on a exploration trip down the Amazon River in Brazil. Later he went on Safari treks to Africa.”

The author has the timing wrong. Roosevelt went only one Safari in Africa in 1909. That expedition was a great success. The Amazon expedition, commonly known as the ‘River of Doubt Expedition’ was in 1913/14 following his failed campaign at a 3rd presidential term.

The Amazon expedition almost killed T.R. he suffered from a reoccurring bouts of Malaria (Cuban Fever as he referred to it since contracting in during the Spanish American war) compounded by a serious infection in his leg. The leg injury was an re-injury of an old wound that Roosevelt suffered when he was in a carriage accident early in his 1st term. The accident killed his ‘secret service body man’ and put T.R. in a wheel chair for several months.

This an other facts can be found here on this great website on presidential trivia which is not associated with the author’s book.

http://10presidentialfacts.com/theodo...


Jim DiGiovanni

[Kara · Rating 5 out of 5]

A hilarious collection of anecdotes about our country's various Commander-in-chiefs, all told in a Q&A style, giving you a moment to try and guess each answer (hint: the majority of the answers are Lincoln, Roosevelt or Washington, although Humes does dig up a lot of facts on our more obscure presidents, like the fact that president Taft had a pet cow named Goldie and that president Van Buren started the word "ok".)

The presidential facts bring out the humanity in these leaders, making them much more real than the stiff portraits high school students are familiar with.

My two favorites was the fact that John Quincy Adams liked to go skinny dipping in the Potomac - and had his clothes held hostage by an enterprising lady reporter until he agreed to an interview, and the fact that First Lady Polk insisted on a dry White House - so guests would stop at Former First Lady Madison's house down the street before and after for some real refreshments.

After reading Assassination Vacation, some of the facts were familier, but all in all, a funny and informative read!

[Paul Lunger · Rating 4 out of 5]

In "What President Killed a Man?", James Humes takes a rather interesting look back at the 43 people at the time who've held the office of President of the U.S. along with the first ladies & Vice Presidents. Across a lot of different topics, we learn facts that are not so obvious about our executives across all facets of their lives. The book itself is done in away that the topics are kept relatively short & Humes doesn't bore you with excess amounts of details. The only catch is there are a couple of glaring mistakes in the book which don't help & actually does take away from how really good this book is. So if you're looking for kind of an odd book relating the the history of our chief executives, definitely pick this one up since you'll find it hard to put down.

[Corey · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's weird and a bit sad that the author felt the need to embed his partisan political beliefs into what is portrayed as a light-hearted trivia book. Historians, even very amateur historians like Mr Humes should at least make an attempt to strive for impartiality. Beside that point, the book is pretty sloppily put together and lazily researched. A casual read finds several straight up historical inaccuracies. The author was inspired by the trivia books he read as a child. So in that way he was successful with this book. It reminded me of the pretty discredited and embarrassingly factually deficient history text books many of us grew up with. I'm sure you can find it on the clearance rack at your local book store. Trust me, even there it's way overpriced.

[Michelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am only on page 60 and I have already discovered TWO MAJOR ERRORS in information in this book-- one regarding how President Franklin Pierce's son died, and the other regarding which presidents were widowers going into the White House. Who fact checked this book? This is not even to mention the obvious error using the word "younger" when the author meant "older" for which president was the youngest elected vs. youngest to take office.
I am not a professor or researcher-- just a person who enjoys presidential history. And I know these things are wrong!
I am very disappointed because I wanted another interesting book about presidents, but now I feel I am left to question everything written in it!

[Codey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I talk about this book on my YouTube channel Cinema Codey. The video is called “Book Suggestion Sunday!! The Books I read in June.”

This was simply a book filled with interesting facts about the presidents of the U.S. and there was a section about their wives. I love reading trivia and interesting facts like this but the way it was written was hard to read. There was no flow and it was just facts stated simply which made it hard for me to read. It was like reading a users Manuel. I don’t know what the writer could have done different however to jazz it up. I almost dnf a few times. It’s a good book to pick up and read a little here and there in between reading other novels but not good for just sitting and reading it solely on its own like a novel.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book contained a vast amount of presidential trivia. It seemed very focused on Lincoln, Washington and Teddy Roosevelt. I found the trivia on the other presidents, the first ladies and the vice presidents to be more interesting and more likely info that I didn't know but it was still interesting and a fun and worthwhile read. The Q and A format was also a helpful format. It gave the reader a chance to guess the answers and then gave a short response in case you got the answer right but couldn't remember the why.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a fan of all things trivia and this book more than met my expectations. Especially fun were the facts about the first ladies. I am relatively well read on my Presidential Trivia, but learned quite a few things about the Presidential Wives that I had not know previously.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting information but badly written. Was hoping more for anecdotes than factoids. Also, as the author was a speech writer for 5 republican presidents, he makes no effort to hide his political views and bias.

[Jillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was good information, but some of it was redundant.

[Michael Foley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like useless trivia and this book is very entertaining for me.

[Gene McAvoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why, Jackson...of course. This book is a great bathroom reader. :-)

[Stef · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clearly this book was right up my alley. Lots of really cool tidbits and facts about history and the presidents!

[David Kubicek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating trivia about the presidents and first ladies.

[Sally Andrews · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting stuff. Fun to read.