Accidental Presidents: Eight Men Who Changed America by Jared Cohen

 

Title: Accidental Presidents:  Eight Men Who Changed America

Author:  Jared Cohen

Narrated by:  Arthur Morey

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Length: Approximately 16 hours and 57 minutes

Source: Review Copy from Simon & Schuster Audio.  Thank you @simonandschuster #BookClubFavorites for the free books!

Who has been your favorite vice president? One of my favorite vice presidents was Teddy Roosevelt who became President after the assassination of William McKinley. There have been eight times in our history where the vice president has taken over as the president. This riveting audiobook delves into the history around these eight periods of time, the president that died in office, and the vice president that took over for him.  Sometimes the vice president was not the right person for the job and our democracy hung in the balance (example – Andrew Johnson), while others stepped up the challenge and were great presidents (Teddy Roosevelt and Harry Truman).  Four of the presidents died from an illness and four were assassinated.

I thought it was very interesting that John Tyler was the first vice president to assume the office once William Henry Harrison became the first president to die in office after only 32 days as president.  The constitution did not have anything written about what would happen if the president were to die in office, and there was much confusion.  Tyler had a difficult time as president and was called “his accidency.”

I was a little sad that one of my favorite vice presidents that became presidents, Gerald Ford, only got a brief mention at the end.  He didn’t meet the criteria of assuming the presidency after the death of the incumbent.  I would argue that he was actually the most accidental president of them all.

I listened to this audiobook in the car with my family over many road trips.  My two sons (ages 17 and 15) enjoyed this audiobook, and my husband Ben liked it as well.  He really enjoyed the narrator, Arthur Morey, and was only disappointed to discover he was not the author as he seemed so personable.

Overall, Accidental Presidents was a fascinating way to look at American history and was a good audiobook to listen to and discuss with my family.