by Mike Purdy | Mar 19, 2019 | Calvin Coolidge, Deaths, George H.W. Bush, Gerald Ford, Herbert Hoover, Jimmy Carter, John Adams, Post Presidencies
On Thursday, March 21, 2019, former president Jimmy Carter will go down in history as the longest-living former president. Coolidge was President in 1924: Carter was born on October 1, 1924 in Plains, Georgia. He still lives in Plains today (population: 727) where he...
by Mike Purdy | Apr 22, 2018 | George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Mothers, Wives and Mistresses
There is no job description for First Lady, nor is there a job description for being a political spouse. Nevertheless, Barbara Bush navigated being in the public eye for more than 50 years as the wife of prominent politician and one-term president, George H.W. Bush...
by Mike Purdy | Jan 7, 2018 | Assassinations, Books, Campaigns, Chester Arthur, Elections, Franklin Roosevelt, George Washington, Harry Truman, Jimmy Carter, John Adams, John F. Kennedy, Presidential Sites, Richard Nixon, Thomas Jefferson
There was definitely not enough time in 2017 to read. So many books, so little time! One of my New Year’s resolutions is to read more books. The following is a list of the books about the presidents that I read in 2017 (the titles below are linked to Amazon or...
by Mike Purdy | Jan 16, 2017 | Abraham Lincoln, Barack Obama, Constitution, Franklin Roosevelt, George Washington, Herbert Hoover, Inaugurations, John Adams, John F. Kennedy, John Quincy Adams, Lyndon B. Johnson, Rutherford Hayes, Thomas Jefferson, William Henry Harrison, William Howard Taft
As the United States prepares for the transfer of power between presidents, it’s a good time to pause and remember some interesting facts about previous inaugurations. Prior to 1937, the president was inaugurated on March 4 following the November election. That...
by Mike Purdy | Oct 4, 2016 | Campaigns, Chester Arthur, Elections, Electoral College, James Garfield, John Adams, John F. Kennedy, Millard Fillmore, Ronald Reagan, Theodore Roosevelt, Vice-Presidents, William Henry Harrison, William McKinley
On September 27, 2016, I had a free-ranging 30 minute interview on Chicago-based WCGO radio (1590) on the presidents and vice-presidents, with comments about the tone of the current 2016 presidential campaign, including what president I thought would beat either...
by Mike Purdy | Jul 13, 2016 | Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Assassinations, Campaigns, Chester Arthur, Deaths, Elections, Franklin Roosevelt, George H.W. Bush, Gerald Ford, Harry Truman, James Garfield, John Adams, Millard Fillmore, Richard Nixon, Theodore Roosevelt, Vice-Presidents, William Henry Harrison, William McKinley, Woodrow Wilson, Zachary Taylor
“My country,” a frustrated John Adams once wrote about the vice presidency, “has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.” He has not been alone throughout our...
