Warren G. Harding: The American Presidents Series: The 29th President, 1921-1923 (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780805069563)

President Nixon's former counsel illuminates another presidency marked by scandal

Warren G. Harding may be best known as America's worst president. Scandals plagued him: the Teapot Dome affair, corruption in the Veterans Bureau and the Justice Department, and the posthumous revelation of an extramarital affair.

Raised in Marion, Ohio, Harding took hold of the small town's newspaper and turned it into a success. Showing a talent for local politics, he rose quickly to the U.S. Senate. His presidential campaign slogan, "America's present need is not heroics but healing, not nostrums but normalcy," gave voice to a public exhausted by the intense politics following World War I. Once elected, he pushed for legislation limiting the number of immigrants; set high tariffs to relieve the farm crisis after the war; persuaded Congress to adopt unified federal budget creation; and reduced income taxes and the national debt, before dying unexpectedly in 1923.

In this wise and compelling biography, John W. Dean--no stranger to controversy himself--recovers the truths and explodes the myths surrounding our twenty-ninth president's tarnished legacy.

Author: John W. Dean
ISBN-10: 0805069569
ISBN-13: 9780805069563
Publisher: Times Books
Language: English
Published: 01/07/2004
Pages: 224
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 8.60h x 5.90w x 1.00d

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 10/15/2003 pg. 1259
Publishers Weekly 11/03/2003 pg. 62
Library Journal 11/15/2003 pg. 83
Booklist 01/01/2004 pg. 813
New York Review of Books 02/12/2004 pg. 12
BookPage 02/01/2004 pg. 12
School Library Journal 06/01/2004 pg. 179