The Leaders We Deserved (And a Few We Didn't)
Gone are the days when historians and political scientists, in evaluating presidents, put the nation's past presidents into artificial categories ranging from “great” to “failure” without providing criteria for their evaluations. Beginning with this book, multiple organizations began assessing presidents according to specific personal qualities (character, vision, competence) and areas of performance (economic leadership, national security mastery and finesse; and advancing the nation’s mission).
Selected reviews
Alvin Felzenberg puts Lincoln and several other presidents in the full context of their times and ours, shedding much new light on those we thought we knew well, and taking a fresh look at some we need to know better. The sections on Abraham Lincoln, the most elusive of all presidents, adds much to the field of Lincoln studies and should not be missed.
See that twenty dollar bill in your wallet? If Al Felzenberg has his way, Andrew Jackson will no longer be decorating it. His book looks at every president from George Washington to ‘W’, and reshuffles their reputations in surprising ways.
