The Raising of a President - by Doug Wead (Paperback)

About the Book

A team of five psychologists assisted the author in his research into how the presidents' destinies were shaped during childhood. This volume includes stories of seemingly perfect parents who by accident or design raised high achievers.

Book Synopsis

Our greatest presidents have entered the Oval Office armed with overwhelming ambition, intellect, and ideals. But were these characteristics evident in youth? What are the family circumstances that have created our presidents? How did their upbringing shape their future -- and ours?

In The Raising of a President, bestselling author Doug Wead goes where no presidential biographer has gone before: straight to the childhood homes of America's greatest leaders. Wead analyzes the types of families in which they were reared, and offers fascinating psychological profiles based on his findings. Using presidential letters and personal correspondence -- as well as notes from his own private conversations with six presidential families -- Wead brilliantly portrays the early lives, loves, and political awakenings of George Washington; John Adams and the rest of America's first dynasty; Lincoln, who never betrayed his humble roots; Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy, each raised in prominent political households; and the once and future commanders in chief Bush.

More than just political biography, The Raising of a President sheds new light on America¹s presidents, who were not only born but made.

Review Quotes

"Epic! A remarkable perspective....One sees the American presidents through a more intimate lens."

-- Peter Schweizer, coauthor of The Bushes: Portrait of a Dynasty

"Superb.... A long-awaited study of a difficult subject often hidden by presidents and their families. It is a piece of American history that solves many mysteries."

-- Steven Lee Carson, chairman, White House Conference on Presidential Children