Distinguished Speakers Series
Guest Q&A Moderator
HAL PITTMAN
U.S. Navy Rear Admiral, Retired
APS Director of External Communications
HIGH PRAISE FOR PRESIDENTS OF WAR
“A marvelous narrative. . . . As Beschloss explains, the greatest wartime presidents successfully leaven military action with moral concerns. . . . Beschloss’s writing is clean and concise, and he admirably draws upon new documents. Some of the more titillating tidbits in the book are in the footnotes. . . . There are fascinating nuggets on virtually every page of Presidents of War. It is a superb and important book, superbly rendered.”
—Jay Winik, The New York Times Book Review
“Sparkle and bite. . . . Valuable and engrossing study of how our chief executives have discharged the most significant of all their duties. . . . Excellent. . . . A fluent narrative that covers two centuries of national conflict.”
—Richard Snow, The Wall Street Journal
Michael Beschloss
Named "the nation's leading Presidential historian" by Newsweek, Michael Beschloss is the author of nine best-selling books. The most recent, Presidents of War, is a groundbreaking and often surprising saga of America’s wartime chief executives.
The Sandra Day O'Connor Institute is honored to welcome Mr. Beschloss to Arizona for our Distinguished Speakers Series. Luncheon guests will receive a copy of Presidents of War.
Ten years in the research and writing, Presidents of War is a fresh, magisterial, intimate look at a procession of American leaders as they took the nation into conflict and mobilized their country for victory. It brings us into the room as they make the most difficult decisions that face any President, at times sending hundreds of thousands of American men and women to their deaths.
From James Madison and the War of 1812 to recent times, we see them struggling with Congress, the courts, the press, their own advisors and antiwar protesters; seeking comfort from their spouses, families and friends; and dropping to their knees in prayer. We come to understand how these Presidents were able to withstand the pressures of war—both physically and emotionally—or were broken by them.
Beschloss’s interviews with surviving participants in the drama and his findings in original letters, diaries, once-classified national security documents, and other sources help him to tell this story in a way it has not been told before. Presidents of War combines the sense of being there with the overarching context of two centuries of American history. This important book shows how far we have traveled from the time of our Founders, who tried to constrain presidential power, to our modern day, when a single leader has the potential to launch nuclear weapons that can destroy much of the human race.
Mr. Beschloss was born in Chicago and was educated at Eaglebrook School, Andover Williams College and Harvard University. He majored in political science at Williams, graduating with Highest Honors and earned an MBA at Harvard Business School.
Additional Books by Michael Beschloss
