A collection of essays on power and the American presidency from a journalist who personally knew the men inside the Oval Office.
An academic and journalist, Max Lerner dedicated his life to studying American presidents. He not only wrote about the men in the Oval Office, but knew them personally, from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Bill Clinton. Lerner believed that the nature of the office transforms presidents into titans, but wounded titans, bowed and sometimes broken by forces, fate, destiny, or history, that lie beyond their control.
Wounded Titans compiles Lerner’s essays on the presidency along with his presidential portraits and campaign journalism. This collection includes Lerner’s thoughts on Roosevelt’s attempt to pack the Supreme Court; Truman’s efforts to manhandle the steel industry; Eisenhower’s belief that he could control the military-industrial complex; Kennedy’s hyperactive libido and recklessness; and Nixon’s conviction that he could manipulate political process. Lerner’s personal relationship with the presidents gives these essays “a powerful immediacy” and “he is unflinching in his assessment of their effectiveness or lack thereof while in office” (Kirkus Reviews).
Updated with a new foreword, Wounded Titans is the complete collection of Max Lerner’s writings on the presidency and American presidents.
