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The Presidents

The acclaimed account of America's leaders - a must-listen for anyone with an interest in American politics and history

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About this listen

 The ultimate guide to every President there's ever been: 46 profiles by 46 different politicians, journalists and academics compiled by leading political commentator Iain Dale

'A must read for political geeks' - Saqib Bhatti, MP

Never has there been a more pressing time to pay attention to American politics - and understand how we got to where we are today.

The Presidents features essays, written by a range of academics, historians, political journalists and serving politicians, on all 46 American Presidents who have held the office over the last 230 years - from George Washington to Donald Trump. Each contributor has been carefully chosen based on expert knowledge of their subjects and personal connections, providing analysis of their subject's successes, failures and influence. Any hagiographical writing is shunned in favour of a 'warts and all' perspective on each President and the impact they've had on US politics - past, present and future.©2021 Iain Dale American president Politicians Politics & Activism Presidents & Heads of State Latin American Socialism Democrat Franklin D Roosevelt Middle East American History Biography
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I think this is a great concept. I've also read the Prime Ministers. I see that there is now one on Ireland. I hope there are future ones on the French Presidents of the Fifth Republic and the German Chancellors since WWII. I like the fact that each President has a different author They are a bit hit and miss in that respect e.g. I thought Simon Heffer did one of the best essays in the PMs (Gladstone) but his Reagan is rather a disappointment: he is too much like a love lorn teenage girl and you don't get the rounded assessent that is needed. But that's all part of the mix I suppose. My only real criticism is that although I enjoyed Dale's podcasts, I don't think he should have narrated the books. Too often he gives the impression while half way through a sentence that he has no idea how it is going to end. He sometimes loses the sense via poor emphasis, and some of his pronounciations are very odd. A pity as overall I think this is such a good idea.

Excellent concept but needed professional narrator

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A most enjoyable listen, especially when learning more of those obscure 19th century presidents few have heard of.

Great listen

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The book could have profited from more editing. I’ll confess to being a politics junkie with a solid knowledge and I found this great- but to attract a larger audience some description of terms and offices would be good

It is Dale’s voice that sells this

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It’s a nice collection of essays on every American president. Most of them are objective, informative, and educative. Some of them seem slightly biased (eg the disappointing and super-romanticised biography of George W. Bush).
In general it’s an enjoyable audiobook (but could have done with a better narrator).

Informative!

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Iain Dale is one of the busiest broadcasters in the country and this selection of essays builds on his previous Prime Ministers selection. All written by others but edited by Dale they give a good overview and engrossing history of the offices.

However, the production on this is shameful, Dale stutters over lines that should have had another take and had an edit, he mispronounces all over the place, not just names but ‘celebrity’ for
‘Celebratory’ and also clearly needs to clear his throat at other points. It’s all rather arrogant, to take such good pieces and ‘knock them off’ without ensuring that the production is top notch. I won’t be listening to another Iain Dale
book for a while as it’s simply a waste of money or a credit to hear something done this badly.

Great book. Terrible production.

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