JFK: Famous Before His Time

by Mike Purdy | Feb 6, 2017 | Books, Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Mothers

If we want to understand what made John F. Kennedy an admired and glamorous president – his innate sense of ease with people, his ready smile, his wit, his razor sharp intellect, his comfort with the media, and even his proclivities for frequent sexual encounters – we...

The Secret Reason Washington Won the Revolutionary War

by Mike Purdy | Jan 29, 2017 | Books, George Washington

George Washington didn’t win the Revolutionary War because he had a superior fighting force.  It was a ragtag army that was always in danger of either being wiped out by an engagement with British forces, or evaporating when enlistments were up. He didn’t...

Time Traveling With John Quincy Adams

by Mike Purdy | Nov 27, 2016 | Books, John Quincy Adams, Post Presidencies

I wrote the Foreword to a newly published biography of our 6th president, John Quincy Adams.  The book explores his life 250 years after his birth and how he changed the course of history.  “The Story of John Quincy Adams” by Edward Cody Huddleston, was...

George Washington as America’s First Spymaster

by Mike Purdy | Sep 20, 2016 | Books, George Washington

In today’s world, we hear a lot about espionage, with computer hacking being a daily occurrence, electronic surveillance, eavesdropping, and human ground intelligence in our increasingly complex and dangerous world.  Spying is big business and governments use it...

How the 1912 Presidential Election Rocked the Nation

by Mike Purdy | Jan 11, 2016 | Books, Elections, Theodore Roosevelt, Uncategorized, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson

In the 1912 presidential election, former President Theodore Roosevelt was denied the Republican nomination for president, despite having won nine out of the twelve primary elections.  But the power of the party bosses was still too strong in 1912 and they selected...

Lincoln’s Body – In Life and in Death

by Mike Purdy | Sep 28, 2015 | Abraham Lincoln, Assassinations, Books

Abraham Lincoln, ranked by most historians and citizens as our greatest president, is the subject of a book published in February 2015.  Written by Richard Wightman Fox, a history professor at the University of Southern California, Lincoln’s Body: A Cultural...