
Accidental Presidents
Eight Men Who Changed America
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Narrated by:
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Arthur Morey
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By:
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Jared Cohen
About this listen
The strength and prestige of the American presidency has waxed and waned since George Washington. Accidental Presidents looks at eight men who came to the office without being elected to it. It demonstrates how the character of the man in that powerful seat affects the nation and world.
Eight men have succeeded to the presidency when the incumbent died in office. In one way or another, they vastly changed our history. Only Theodore Roosevelt would have been elected in his own right. Only TR, Coolidge, Truman, and LBJ were reelected.
John Tyler succeeded William Henry Harrison, who died 30 days into his term. He was kicked out of his party and became the first president threatened with impeachment.
Millard Fillmore succeeded esteemed General Zachary Taylor. He immediately sacked the entire cabinet and delayed an inevitable Civil War by standing with Henry Clay’s compromise of 1850.
Chester Arthur, the embodiment of the spoils system, was so reviled as James Garfield’s successor that he had to defend himself against plotting Garfield’s assassination; but he reformed the civil service.
Andrew Johnson, who succeeded our greatest president, sided with remnants of the Confederacy in Reconstruction.
Theodore Roosevelt broke up the trusts.
Calvin Coolidge silently cooled down the Harding scandals and preserved the White House for the Republican Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression.
Truman surprised everybody when he succeeded the great FDR and proved an able and accomplished president.
Lyndon B. Johnson was named to deliver Texas electorally. He led the nation forward on civil rights but failed on Vietnam.
Accidental Presidents adds immeasurably to our understanding of the power and limits of the American presidency in critical times.
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- America's First Politician
- By: James M. Bradley
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 26 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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This new biography of Van Buren—the first full-scale portrait in four decades—charts his ascent from a tavern in the Hudson Valley to the presidency, concluding with his late-career involvement in an antislavery movement. Offering vivid profiles of the day's leading figures (Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, John Quincy Adams, DeWitt Clinton, James K. Polk), James Bradley's book depicts the struggle for power in the tumultuous decades leading up to the Civil War.
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Excellent
- By Joseph T. Hobson on 05-19-25
By: James M. Bradley
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Coolidge: An American Enigma
- By: Robert Sobel
- Narrated by: Charles Bice
- Length: 16 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Sobel instead exposes the real Coolidge, whose legacy as the most Jeffersonian of all twentieth-century presidents still reverberates today. Sobel delves into the record to show how Coolidge cut taxes four times, had a budget surplus every year in office, and cut the national debt by a third in a period of unprecedented economic growth.
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A Book Exciting As It's Subject!!!
- By Ted on 08-28-12
By: Robert Sobel
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The Jazz Age President
- Defending Warren G. Harding
- By: Ryan S. Walters
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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He's the butt of political jokes, frequently subjected to ridicule, and almost never absent a "Worst Presidents" list where he most often ends up at the bottom. Historians have labeled him the "Worst President Ever," "Dead Last," "Unfit," and "Incompetent," to name but a few. Many contemporaries were equally cruel. H. L. Mencken called him a "nitwit." To Alice Roosevelt Longworth, he was a "slob."
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Excellent clarification
- By Scott J. Jones MD on 08-03-22
By: Ryan S. Walters
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An Honest President
- The Life and Presidencies of Grover Cleveland
- By: H. Paul Jeffers
- Narrated by: Raymond Todd
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Today Grover Cleveland is mainly remembered as the only president to be elected to two non-consecutive terms. But in his day, Cleveland was a renowned reformer, an enemy of political machines who joined forces with Theodore Roosevelt to fight powerful party bosses, a moralist who vetoed bills he considered blatant raids on the Treasury, a vigorous defender of the Monroe Doctrine who resisted American imperialism.
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grover deserves better
- By Gregory on 02-09-07
By: H. Paul Jeffers
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The Triumph of William McKinley
- Why the Election of 1896 Still Matters
- By: Karl Rove
- Narrated by: Karl Rove
- Length: 15 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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From New York Times best-selling author and political mastermind Karl Rove comes a fresh look at President William McKinley, who found a message that healed his nation, pried his party away from its bosses, and extended its reach to forge a governing majority that lasted 30 years.
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Understand Modern Presidential Campaigns
- By Anon on 02-27-16
By: Karl Rove
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Presidents at War
- How World War II Shaped a Generation of Presidents, from Eisenhower and JFK Through Reagan and Bush
- By: Steven M. Gillon
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 17 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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World War II loomed over the latter half of the twentieth century, transforming every level of American society and international relationships and searing itself onto the psyche of an entire generation, including that of seven American presidents: Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush. The lessons of World War II, more than party affiliation or ideology, defined the presidencies of these seven men.
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Bias
- By E.A.BRYLA on 03-06-25
By: Steven M. Gillon
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The President and the Assassin
- McKinley, Terror, and Empire at the Dawn of the American Century
- By: Scott Miller
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 13 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1901, as America tallied its gains from a period of unprecedented imperial expansion, an assassin's bullet shattered the nation's confidence. The shocking murder of President William McKinley threw into stark relief the emerging new world order of what would come to be known as the American Century.
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An Ideal History Book for the Audio Format
- By Nelson Alexander on 09-30-11
By: Scott Miller
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Team of Five
- The Presidents Club in the Age of Trump
- By: Kate Andersen Brower
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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From the number one New York Times best-selling author of The Residence and First Women - also a New York Times best seller - comes a poignant, news-making look at the lives of the five former presidents in the wake of their White House years, including the surprising friendships they have formed through shared perspective and empathy.
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Fascinating
- By Jean on 06-18-20
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1920
- The Year of Six Presidents
- By: David Pietrusza
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 20 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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The presidential election of 1920 was among history's most dramatic. Six once-and-future presidents--Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, and Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt--jockeyed for the White House. With voters choosing between Wilson's League of Nations and Harding's front-porch isolationism, the 1920 election shaped modern America.
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A fascinating view into the US at the end of WWI
- By D. Littman on 12-31-09
By: David Pietrusza
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Five Presidents
- My Extraordinary Journey with Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford
- By: Clint Hill, Lisa McCubbin Hill
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 14 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Secret Service agent Clint Hill brings history intimately and vividly to life as he reflects on his 17 years protecting the most powerful office in the nation. Hill walked alongside Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, and Gerald R. Ford, seeing them through a long, tumultuous era - the Cold War; the Cuban Missile Crisis; the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy; the Vietnam War; Watergate; and the resignations of Spiro Agnew and Richard M. Nixon.
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Interesting, but....
- By Papa Charlie on 07-09-17
By: Clint Hill, and others
engaging
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Wow
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Interesting history on the presidency
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Content is detailed, informative, encyclopedic, even.
Recommended for those wanting an especially detailed description of presidents who became presidents whose predecessors died before serving their full terms.
Detailed analyses of accidental presidents
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Incredible history stories
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Great History Lessons!
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Great Audiobook!
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Excellent Presidential History
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Very Interesting!
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A historical must read!
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