This discussion of the Presidency as an institution is an examination of the office itself, offered on a chronological framework.

Here, from American Heritage, is the story of our presidents. From George Washington’s reluctant oath-taking through George W. Bush’s leadership challenges after September 11, 2001, we view ambitious and fallible men through the new lens of the twenty-first century. Where did they succeed? Where did they fail? And what do we know now that we could not have known at the time?

"Douglas Brinkley and American Heritage have done a grand job. This is a first-rate book: fair, clear, and enormously welcome." - David McCullough "Douglas Brinkley's one-volume history is a riveting narrative of unique people who have come to call themselves American. There is no dust on these pages as the author brilliantly tells our national story with skill and brevity." In this rich and inspiring book, acclaimed historian Douglas Brinkley takes us on the incredible journey of the United States - a nation formed from a vast countryside on whose fringes thirteen small British colonies fought for their freedom, then established a democratic nation that spanned the continent, and went on to become a world power. This book will be treasured by anyone interested in the story of America.

The best way to examine the presidency now, writes the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Bruce Catton, "is to examine the lives and personalities of the men who have held it, because the presidency today is in many ways the sum of large and small contributions made by the different presidents." Here, in the first volume of American Heritage's history of presidents are the dramatic stories of the first eight men to hold the office: George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, and Martin Van Buren.