The President of the United States

The first photograph presented to readers in The American Presidents depicts Lincoln debating his opponent Douglas during the 1858 election campaign. On March 12, 1933, Roosevelt delivered his “Fireside Chat” and began implementing the New Deal to tackle the economic crisis. On December 7, 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, and the following afternoon Roosevelt signed the declaration of war against Japan. When the Stars and Stripes flew high above a fort battered by British artillery, no one could have imagined that the United States of America, founded by just thirteen colonies, would one day become a superpower with a global impact.

As the most powerful figures in the country, the presidents of the United States, from George Washington, the “Father of His Country,” and Lincoln, who freed the enslaved, to Roosevelt, who declared war on fascism in World War II, and Kennedy, who backed the Cold War; from Nixon, who pursued “ping-pong diplomacy,” to Barack Obama, a Black man with “the audacity of hope,” have shaped and interpreted American history in their own ways as occupants of the White House for more than two hundred years.

Their stories include a tenacious pursuit of freedom and a frank celebration of individuality, but also the greed of those seeking to seize wealth and the ambition to dominate the world... When we close the final page and reflect on what we have read, we may suddenly realize that these portraits of American presidents, these vivid figures who shaped their times, are not isolated individuals. Together, they form a living history of the United States!