Presidential Anecdotes

This is a collection of humorous stories about U.S. Presidents throughout history. Originally published in 1981, this edition is updated to include anecdotes on George Bush and Bill Clinton.

Dramatic, poignant, hilarious, and sentimental, anecdotes about our presidents are as varied as the presidents themselves. This new and revised edition of Presidential Anecdotes recounts some of the most striking stories about America's 42 chief executives, from Washington to Clinton, shedding light on the presidents as human beings and on the culture that produced them.

*Praise for the first edition:

A robust, entertaining, collection.--Publishers Weekly

This is a more than sound refresher in American history: It is a...delightful account of how lucky this country has been in its Presidents.--Los Angeles Times Book Review

An immensely entertaining collection of bonbons of White House humor. What's most eye-opening is not the wit of presidents--few have been known for that--but that the stories reveal so much about their characters.--Chicago Sun-Times

Entertaining and effortlessly, unassumingly informing.--Kirkus Reviews

This fat volume is a choice repository of revealing anecdotes....This is the perfect bedside book.--John Barkham Reviews

The material Boller has culled is fascinating even when the Presidents are not.--Time

Boller does a terrific job of humanizing the men who held the nation's highest office.--American Library Association

Unusual and entertaining....This collection is fine for browsing but even better to read straight through from start to finish.--Associated Press

[A] stylish smorgasbord of anecdotes.--Newsweek

A book of stories about American presidents that is as delightful as a box of crackerjacks....Boller has an uncanny instinct for finding stories that are fresh, offbeat, revealing and very funny--in short, all the stories that you should have heard in your college history course but didn't.--Dallas Morning News

Fascinating and highly readable.--Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Delightful, readable, and pleasantly light-hearted.--Library Journal