Table of Contents
Presidents of the United States xi
Introduction 3
1 Monument Man 9
On George Washington's Transformation from Mortal Man to Immortal Icon
2 Well-Timed Exits 25
On the Postmortem Fortunes (and Misfortunes) of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, William Henry Harrison, Ulysses S. Grant, and Andrew Johnson
3 The First Patient 49
On James Garfield, Herbert Hoover, Zachary Taylor, and the Doctors Who Keep Presidents Alive (and Occasionally Make Them Worse)
4 Farewell, Mr. President 75
On William Henry Harrison, Woodrow Wilson, Gerald Ford, and Richard Nixon, and How the Presidential Funeral Was Born
5 Death Trips 93
On the Posthumous Travels of James Polk, James Monroe, John Tyler, and Abraham Lincoln
6 His Good Name 123
On William McKinley, Ronald Reagan, and Calvin Coolidge, and the Large (and Small) Hays Presidents Air Remembered
7 Robots and Sphinxes 141
On Lyndon Johnson, Rutherford B. Hayes, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, and Chester Arthur, and America's Presidential Libraries
8 Unintended Legacies 161
On William Taft, Andrew Jackson, Thomas Jefferson, and How Presidents' Reputations Change over Time
9 Eternal Flame 183
On John F. Kennedy, the City of Dallas, and What Ties Them Together Every November 22
10 The Rest of the Set 205
On the Many Types of Presidential Obscurity and Mediocrity, with Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, Martin Van Buren, James Buchanan, and Warren Harding
11 Family Reunion 227
On the Adamses, the Harrisons, and Presidential Descendants
Epilogue 241
Acknowledgments 251
Notes 253
Illustration Credits 311
Index 313