Michael R. Beschloss

"Reaching for Glory is a mesmerizing journey into the inner psychological and emotional life of a frightened, lonely, driven, suspicious man. The Johnson of the secret tapes sees hidden enemies all around him. Disloyal aides are flirting with his nemesis, Senator Robert Kennedy. In Johnson's conspiratorial mind, Communists are behind the Vietnam demonstrations on college campuses. The Soviet Ambassador is manipulating U.S. Senators to oppose the war. Right-wing fanatics are behind black rioters in Los Angeles."--BOOK JACKET.

"This is a story that you did not read in the newspapers. At the Highest Levels reveals a hitherto secret dimension of the most momentous event of our time: the end of the Cold War. Beschloss and Talbott show us the vital transactions that George Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev made and concealed from the world: Bush's pledge not to press Gorbachev for Baltic independence, the manipulations for German unification, how the Soviet Union joined the Gulf War Coalition, Bush's private warnings to Gorbachev that he was about to be overthrown, and the U.S. president's secret efforts to prevent the breakup of the Soviet Union and keep Gorbachev in power." "From early in 1989, the two prizewinning authors were granted unprecedented access to classified U.S. and Soviet documents, cables, telephone transcripts, and diplomatic records, on the condition that they not publish the information before the end of 1992. Such was their access that in the final days before the Soviet Union's collapse, as they relate in this book, Beschloss and Talbott were asked by a Gorbachev confidant to convey to President Bush a private message about Gorbachev's fate under Boris Yeltsin." "With novelistic detail and intimacy, At the Highest Levels shows Bush and Gorbachev behind closed doors as they fence with domestic foes and suspicious allies. It demonstrates how the two leaders came to believe that their most dangerous opponents were no longer each other but forces inside their own countries. As Beschloss and Talbott argue, the two leaders' excessive reliance on each other contributed to Gorbachev's fall from power in December 1991 and Bush's own collapse less than a year later."--Jacket.

V. 1. Soldier, general of the army, President-elect, 1890-1952--v. 2. The President. A portrait of the man, both decent and complex, who is increasingly regarded as one of the twentieth century's greatest Presidents.

Single-page biographies with portraits of the forty presidents of the United States.

When her mother has to leave home suddenly, Amanda learns how demanding it is to run a household and care for a baby.

Presidential historian Michael Beschloss uses original letters, diaries, declassified documents, and interviews to bring us into the room and into the minds of a procession of Chief Executives who took the nation into major conflicts, mobilized Americans for victory, and seized greater power for themselves. From James Madison and the War of 1812 to Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam, we see these leaders struggling with Congress, the courts, the press, their own advisers, 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.