Web
Sites
The
Internet, while useful in researching many topics, is unfortunately
limited in scope in regards to presidential history. While many
more sites exist than the ones listed below, these are the most
informative and useful sites that TIA's staff has found.
General
Yahoo!
20th Century Presidents
American
Experience: The Presidents (PBS)
POTUS
(Internet Public Library)
Presidents
of the United States (White House)
Theodore
Roosevelt
Theodore
Roosevelt: Icon of An American Century
Online
photography
and portraiture exhibit sponsored by the National Portrait Gallery
Woodrow
Wilson
Woodrow
Wilson on the Web
Interesting
and thorough
site, if somewhat amateurish in design. A useful introduction
to Wilson.
Franklin
D. Roosevelt
Franklin
D. Roosevelt Library and Digital Archives
Immensely
detailed and comprehensive site dealing with FDR, his presidency,
and the Depression
and Second World War.
Harry
S. Truman
Harry
S. Truman Library and Museum
A
standard,
complete online presidential library.
Hiroshima
and Nagasaki: The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb
Although
written by a high school student, this essay is unusually
well-researched and informative.
An excellent exposition and critique of the scholarly debate.
Dwight
Eisenhower
Dwight
Eisenhower Library
Difficult
and frustrating to use, this site
is also sadly uninformative. However, it does have the
standard allotment of primary document sources one expects of
presidential libraries.
John
F. Kennedy
John
F. Kennedy Library
A
thoroughly useful presidential library site. While not specifically
tailored to foreign policy issues, the site's resources (including
transcripts and recordings of all 1960 debates) are outstanding.
14
Days in October: The Cuban Missile Crisis
A
fellow ThinkQuest site (from 1997). Useful as a resource for
the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Lyndon
B. Johnson
Lyndon
Johnson Library and Museum
Again,
a useful, comprehensive presidential
site.
Richard
Nixon
Thanks
to an act
of Congress, Nixon's papers have been divided between two
organizations: one -- the government's -- incomplete and
frustratingly "under construction"; the other -- the
family's -- eyecatching, user-friendly, and (predictably) somewhat biased.
Nixon
Presidential Materials
Nixon
Foundation
Jimmy
Carter
Jimmy
Carter Presidential Library
Unusually
difficult
to use.
Ronald
Reagan
Ronald
Reagan Presidential Library
Easy
to use and
fairly well-designed.
Ronald
Reagan and the Soviet Union
Somewhat
sycophantic,
but otherwise interesting.
Current
Issues
The
Heritage Foundation
Conservative,
but typically well-spoken.
Their Policy
Review is influential in rightist circles.
The
Brookings Institution
Erudite
and respected, Brooking's
only drawback is the difficulty of navigating their site.
The
Cato Institution
Libertarian
and typically isolationist, Cato is the determined counterpoint to
the Washingtonian consenus of benign interventionism.
Washington
File (State Department)
A
useful
State Department website that contains U.S. Information Agency
releases (including transcripts of press conferences and briefings).
Books
Even
though the Internet is a valuable resource, most research
information is still offline and available only in print format.
These books are no more than an introduction to the incredibly huge
amount of scholarship produced about American foreign policy in this century.
Theodore
Roosevelt
The
Warrior and the Priest,
John Milton Cooper
A
fascinating study of the rivalry, both political
and philosophical, between TR and Wilson.
Theodore
Roosevelt: An Autobiography,
Theodore Roosevelt
By
modern standards, somewhat difficult to read, but still the best way
to understand
TR's policies.
Harry
Truman
Truman,
David McCullough
The
definitive, Pulitzer
Prize-winning biography.
Dwight
Eisenhower
Eisenhower:
Soldier and President,
Stephen Ambrose
Although
this is a good introductory volume, it suffers from a few flaws,
including an elementary style and -- to some extent -- a lack of
sophistication in an understanding of Eisenhower's policies.
John
Kennedy
A
Thousand Days, Arthur Schlesinger
Unfortunately
out-of-print, this is an unabashedly sympathetic portrait of
Kennedy. But Schlesinger's strength as a writer makes the book worthwhile.
Richard
Nixon
Diplomacy,
Henry Kissinger
The
best single-volume
study on the subject TIA's staff has seen yet. An
indispensable guide to foreign affairs. (This book was the basic text
used in the research for this website.)
RN:
The Memoirs of Richard Nixon, Richard Nixon
Again,
a slanted perspective, but
a valuable "behind the scenes" look at the art of policymaking.
A
Tangled Web: The Making of Foreign Policy in the Nixon Presidency,
William Bundy
An
objective
look at Nixon's policies.
Jimmy
Carter
Keeping
the Faith, Jimmy Carter
Biased,
yet compelling. Carter's first-hand account of the presidency
is sincere and helps readers move beyond their preconceptions of
Carter to a more balanced view.
Ronald
Reagan
Dutch,
Edmund Morris
Despite
the critics' complaints about this book (due to Morris' use of
fictional characters), in all this book portrays Reagan fairly.
While there is little in-depth study of individual policies, White's
first-hand descriptions of the policy-making process of the Reagan
White House is invaluable to understanding the U.S. government in the 1980s.