Globe Pequot / Lyons Press
Pages: 280
•
Trim: 6 x 9
978-1-4930-3059-0 • Paperback • September 2017 • $17.95 • (£13.99)
978-1-4930-2484-1 • eBook • October 2016 • $16.99 • (£12.99)
Journalist, educator, historian and author Robert Strauss has been a reporter for Sports Illustrated, a feature writer for the Philadelphia Daily News, a news and sports producer for an NBC affiliate, and a TV critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Asbury Park Press. He has more than 1000 bylines in the New York Times, and also writes for the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Philadelphia newspapers, Sports Illustrated, Fortune, and more. He is the author of Daddy’s Little Goalie. A father of two daughters, he lives in Haddonfield, New Jersey, with his wife Susan Warner.
Robert Strauss is perhaps The Funniest. Presidential. Biographer. Ever. But it is no joke that he has turned the story of James Buchanan—indisputably the Worst. President. Ever—into a fascinating tale on the triumph of mediocrity.
— Kai Bird, author of The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames
Strauss makes his case in a manner to be appreciated by both serious historians and modern day politicos. This treatment of a critical piece of Pre-Civil War history will leave readers engaged, entertained, and better equipped to justify their next ranking of Buchanan’s true place in American history.
— Michael Smerconish, television and radio host, and New York Times bestselling author
Entertaining study of ‘the first plodding-to-the-top president,’ a man mercifully forgotten by history. . . . Strauss makes a firm argument for the essential doofusness of the 15th president.
— Kirkus Reviews
Strauss maintains a light tone, but doesn’t sacrifice substance in offering solid historical detail and insights into American politics as the country careened toward Civil War.
— Publishers Weekly
A revealing look at President Buchanan and our fascination with ranking those who have been our Commander in Chief.
— Julian Zelizer, author of The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress and the Battle for the Great Society