Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Flexner (published 1974) is a one-volume abridgement to Flexner’s comprehensive four-volume biography about our first president. I did not find this volume wanting in anyway, and I found both the writing and the content to be straight-forward and relevant as I learned about Washington’s life. The stories in Flexner’s

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We often encounter books about the wives of US presidents. We’ve seen a number of books about the presidents themselves. But what about the mothers of the presidents? First Mothers by Beverly Gherman and Julie Downing (Clarion Books, 2012) finally puts the mothers’ stories at the forefront. With just one or two pages per mother,

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As I’ve scoured the lists of books about revolutionary America for a book to read for my own education, I struggled to find one that covered a variety of people (I love biographies, but I can’t read one about everyone!) and eras (I would love to learn about all eras of the revolution, from the

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White House Kids: The Perks, Pleasures, and Pratfalls of the Presidents’ Children by Joe Rhatigan (Imagine Publishing, 2012) provides a fun and colorful picture of the history of children in the White House. From George Washington’s stepdaughter to the Obama girls, White House Kids gives an interesting portrait of how life changed for the children

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