The History Buff's Guide to the Presidents Quotes

“As historian Betty Boyd Caroli observed, Dolley presented a presidency as both democratic and regal, open to the whole of the spectrum, rather than just the party in power.”
― Thomas R. Flagel, The History Buff's Guide to the Presidents: Top Ten Rankings of the Best, Worst, Largest, and Most Controversial Facets of the American Presidency

“She also managed to save Gilbert Stuart’s masterpiece portrait of George Washington, one of the few works of art to survive the ensuing fire.”
― Thomas R. Flagel, The History Buff's Guide to the Presidents: Top Ten Rankings of the Best, Worst, Largest, and Most Controversial Facets of the American Presidency

“On Flag Day 1954, he signed a bill adding “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance. He”
― Thomas R. Flagel, The History Buff's Guide to the Presidents: Top Ten Rankings of the Best, Worst, Largest, and Most Controversial Facets of the American Presidency

“Theodore Roosevelt plowed through history, politics, biographies, Dickens, Poe, Shelly, and Tennyson. He read at night, the only time he was sitting still, but poor eyesight required him to read inches from the page. A boxing injury while president also damaged his left retina, which eventually rendered the eye blind. Cerebral”
― Thomas R. Flagel, The History Buff's Guide to the Presidents: Top Ten Rankings of the Best, Worst, Largest, and Most Controversial Facets of the American Presidency

“The only president with a PhD, Woodrow Wilson taught political science and history at Princeton, where he wrote Constitutional Government in the United States, a highly insightful volume on the hidden potential of the executive branch. After”
― Thomas R. Flagel, The History Buff's Guide to the Presidents: Top Ten Rankings of the Best, Worst, Largest, and Most Controversial Facets of the American Presidency

“From the country’s very beginning, legal eagles have been at the forefront of government. Approximately 50 percent of the signers of the Declaration and 60 percent of those who created the Constitution were trained in law. In”
― Thomas R. Flagel, The History Buff's Guide to the Presidents: Top Ten Rankings of the Best, Worst, Largest, and Most Controversial Facets of the American Presidency

“In 1976, to rank George Washington above all other U.S. officers, Congress gave him the posthumous promotion of “General of the Armies of the United States,” a grade equivalent to a six-star general.”
― Thomas R. Flagel, The History Buff's Guide to the Presidents: Top Ten Rankings of the Best, Worst, Largest, and Most Controversial Facets of the American Presidency

“Oddly, there have been eleven generals but not one admiral to reach the presidency. Nor has there ever been a representative from the Marines, nor a veteran from Korea or Vietnam.”
― Thomas R. Flagel, The History Buff's Guide to the Presidents: Top Ten Rankings of the Best, Worst, Largest, and Most Controversial Facets of the American Presidency

“Political novice Ulysses S. Grant was the first of six Union veterans to become president, five of whom were born in Ohio. The 23rd Ohio Infantry Regiment alone produced Maj. Gen. Rutherford B. Hayes and Maj. William McKinley. Former Brig. Gen. Benjamin Harrison defeated Grover Cleveland in 1888 partly because”
― Thomas R. Flagel, The History Buff's Guide to the Presidents: Top Ten Rankings of the Best, Worst, Largest, and Most Controversial Facets of the American Presidency

“childhood, enduring mental and physical abuse from an alcoholic father. The older and much taller Bill tried to protect him as much as possible, but they were only four and fourteen years old when the worst of the beatings transpired.54 Their mother finally left Roger Sr. in 1962, but it was clear that only one of the boys would be able to psychologically distance himself from the past. In 1984, while Bill served as governor of Arkansas, Roger served time in the federal penal”
― Thomas R. Flagel, The History Buff's Guide to the Presidents: Top Ten Rankings of the Best, Worst, Largest, and Most Controversial Facets of the American Presidency