“Every presidential campaign is a story. This book tells each of the fifty-nine stories with superb narrative skill. It captures the passion and excitement of each campaign and weaves them together into one big story: the regular testing of the viability of American democracy.”
— Bill Schneider, former CNN senior political analyst and professor emeritus at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University
“As Bob Riel so masterfully illustrates in his book, Americans have been at each other’s throats for more than two hundred years now. We’ve witnessed moments of great presidential grandeur and ludicrous folly . . . You don’t need to be a presidential historian to get drawn into this well-crafted yarn of uniquely American stories, traditions, triumphs, and disappointments. Riel brings the reader along for a journey, dipping into critical moments of history with fascinating anecdotes, twists and turns in our collective story that we might not know as well as we thought.”
— Tom Costello, Washington correspondent for NBC News
“In this striking book, Bob Riel surveys the whole panorama of American history through the lens of its presidential campaigns. These quadrennial contests have been called the only times the nation really comes together to talk to itself, and Riel shows us just how colorful, dysfunctional, jangling, and entertaining those conversations have always been. Even the experts will learn something they didn’t know from the well-chosen details within—memorable and revealing snippets from our grand national heart-to-heart with each other.”
— Tom Zoellner, author of Island on Fire, winner of the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction
“How did we get into the (disputed by some) 2020 election mess? Bob Riel reveals its toxic roots by guiding us through past presidential contests, pointing out messes, mischief, malfeasance, and near-misses—and the remarkable resilience of democracy in the United States.”
— Mark Stein, author of The Presidential Fringe and How the States Got Their Shapes
Quest for the Presidency got rave reviews during its own unique presidential tour ...
Abraham Lincoln listened intently to “Quest for the Presidency.”
Harry Truman doffed his hat.
And Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt seemed to quite enjoy the book.
What others are saying …
“As I frequently tell many of my younger co-workers, it’s better to look at political changes with a long-term perspective than a day-to-day experience. This is a book that I would recommend to anyone seeking historical precedents to today’s political environment. Excellent book!”
- Twitter praise for Quest for the Presidency
“The author has taken what could be a dry subject and makes it a real page turner. Tons of interesting facts about past US presidents and presidential races, from the very first to the most recent.”
“The author does a masterful job in recreating the political climate and issues with each election. Quite insightful!”
“I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a better understanding of why US politics is the way that it is!”
ABOUT THE BOOK …
59 presidential elections …
There have been 59 presidential elections in U.S. history, from 1789 through 2020. In Quest for the Presidency you can relive every one of these campaigns in a single volume. The 1800 clash between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln that launched a Civil War, the 1948 whistle-stop comeback of Harry Truman, the Kennedy-Nixon drama of 1960, the historic 2008 victory of Barack Obama, the turbulent 2020 battle between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, and everything in between.
The campaign tales …
In every chapter, campaign tales spring to life. From the outlandish attacks that marked the 1828 contest between Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams to the 1872 candidacy of Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for president. From the sex scandal that rocked the 1884 election and nearly brought down Grover Cleveland to the stunning 1912 speech given by Teddy Roosevelt immediately after being shot in an assassination attempt. From the chaos and violence on the streets of Chicago during the 1968 Democratic convention to the post-election controversies of 2000 that led the Supreme Court to decide a presidential election. It’s all here, and much more, as well.
The impact on politics today …
But Quest for the Presidency doesn’t stop at the stories. It also delves into threads that link elections across time. How did a desire for a return to normalcy influence both the 2020 and 1920 campaigns? How did nativism impact the 1856 and 2016 elections? How did the 1840 “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too” campaign help launch the idea of presidential branding? This journey through presidential history is not only entertaining, it can also help us to better understand American politics today.
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