The Forty-Three Presidents: What They Said To and About Each Other

Harry Truman may have only slightly overstated the matter when he said, “The presidents made the highlights of American history, and when you tell about them, you’ve got it.”

We can, in fact, learn a tremendous amount about the world in which we live by studying the forty-three presidents, including what they said to and about each other.

Nero James Pruitt tackles the task, explaining why we should care that Sen. John Quincy Adams played chess with Secretary of State James Madison in 1803;...