American Caesars  takes a fresh look at the lives and careers of the twelve leaders of the American empire since World War II, from Franklin D. Roosevelt to George W. Bush. President by president, the noted biographer Nigel Hamilton strips away myths and wishful thinking to record our most recent presidents as they really were: leaders guiding the fortunes of an unruly empire, on a world stage. Hamilton relates and examines the presidents’ unique characters, their paths to Pennsylvania Avenue, their effectiveness as global leaders, and their lessons in governance, both good and bad. With uncompromising candor he looks at how these powerful men responded to the challenges that defined their presidencies—FDR’s role as a war leader, Harry Truman’s decision to mount a Berlin Airlift rather than pursue military confrontation with the Soviets, Lyndon Johnson’s undertaking of controversial Civil Rights legislation and his disastrous war in Vietnam, Jimmy Carter’s handling of the Iran hostage crisis, George H. W. Bush’s effectiveness in guiding the world during the collapse of the Soviet Union, and his son’s fateful invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as other salient episodes in modern American history. In the Suetonian manner, Hamilton also looks at the presidents’ private lives—some noble, some flawed, some deeply moving. In explicit emulation of Suetonius’ The Twelve Caesars, Hamilton presents character sketches of U.S. presidents since 1945, excluding Barack Obama. Encompassing their pursuit of power, tenure, and personal lives, emphasizing female relationships with wives and other women, the portraits attempt to reveal the men behind the presidential image. Opinionated but acutely insightful, Hamilton grasps the effects of personal traits on the presidency, as shown in his biographies JFK (1992) and Bill Clinton (two volumes, 2003 and 2007). Summarizing in this work the insatiable carnality of those narcissistic chief executives, Hamilton also cleaves to the maturation in their understanding of leadership––both JFK and Clinton recovered from serious political mistakes. So describing character traits sterling or dross, and their influence on behavior in office, Hamilton praises FDR, admires Truman (with caveats), grants peace-keeping probity to Ike, and is illusion-free concerning JFK. Considering their successors all lesser presidents, Hamilton ranges from condemnation of LBJ, Nixon, and George W. Bush to ambivalence about Reagan; but biography fans won’t equivocate: Hamilton’s effrontery in mimicking Suetonius pays off in irreverent, pedestal-toppling prose. --Gilbert Taylor "A delight of a summer book: history for the beach, politics for the deckchair, and waspish entertainment come rain or shine."— London Guardian ( London Guardian ) "An outstanding book. . . . A commanding study on the nature of personal authority and the presidency."— Irish Times ( Irish Times ) "Enthralling . . . [Hamilton] succeeds brilliantly, . . . offering bracingly clear, if necessarily digested, accounts of the main global events that occurred from the onset of World War Two to our own time."— Irish Independent ( Irish Independent ) "Provocative, stimulating, infuriating, and readable history."— Herald Scotland ( Herald Scotland ) "An impressive gallop through eighty years of U.S. history."— Literary Review ( Literary Review ) "Hamilton does a superb job of getting at [the presidents'] essences. . . . Anyone who enjoys reading history, and loves to look behind the curtain to see the wizards at work, will find this book well worth reading."— Internet Review of Books ( Internet Review of Books ) Honorable Mention in the General Non-Fiction category of the 2010 Los Angeles Book Festival (General Non-Fiction Honorable Mention Los Angeles Book Festival 2011-02-28) A distinguished biographer, Nigel Hamilton is senior fellow in the McCormack Graduate School, University of Massachusetts, Boston, and President of Biographers International Organization.