The serious illness of three presidents—Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy—as well as the injury Ronald Reagan received in the assassination attempt upon him have revealed our woefully inadequate system for handling presidential incapacity. The authors believe that this flawed system poses a major threat to the nation, and they provide sobering reports on how the government functioned (or failed to function) during times of presidential impairment. The public was kept in the dark regarding the gravity of the presidential condition, often unaware that critical decisions were being made while the president was suffering from a severe illness. Hidden Illness in the White House contains startling new information on the severity of Roosevelt’s illness during the crucial Yalta negotiations and the fact that Kennedy suffered from Addison’s disease, a life-threatening illness, long before he was elected to the presidency. In each case the authors demonstrate that a largely successful effort was made to conceal the president’s true medical condition from the public.

The presidency is hazardous to your helth. Fully two-thirds of our presidents have died before reaching their life-expectancy- despite being wealthier, better educated, and better cared for that most Americans. In Mortal Presidency, the first complete account of death and illness in the White House, Robert E. Gilbert looks at modern presidents including Coolidge, FDR, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Reagan. He shows- in some cases, for the first time- that all suffered from debilitating medical problems, physical and/or psychological, which they frequently managed to conceal from the public but which, in important ways, affected their political lives. This edition is updated to include a brief look at Presidents Clinton and Bush, both of whom suffered sudden and unpleasant indispositions while in office which to some degree affected their presidencies.

When President George Washington fell ill six short weeks after his inauguration, he summoned Samuel Bard, one of the most prominent physicians of the day. Thereafter, when residing at his presidential home in Manhattan, Washington consistently relied on Bard for medical care. Thus Bard became the first in a line of presidential physicians, the providers of medical care for America's chief executive. From George Washington to George W. Bush, this volume examines 217 years of health care in the White House and the men and women who ministered to these presidential patients. Beginning with that first presidential physician's visit on June 13, 1789, it analyzes the relationships--sometimes fruitful and sometimes disastrous--of the presidents with their physicians. While biographical sketches detailing the background of each physician are included, the main focus of the work is the especially complex physician-patient relationship and the ways in which it has changed over time. The evolution of the presidential physician's responsibilities is also discussed, as are developments in American medicine during presidential terms.

Rage is an unprecedented and intimate tour de force of new reporting on the Trump presidency facing a global pandemic, economic disaster and racial unrest. Woodward, the #1 international bestselling author of Fear: Trump in the White House, has uncovered the precise moment the president was warned that the Covid-19 epidemic would be the biggest national security threat to his presidency. In dramatic detail, Woodward takes readers into the Oval Office as Trump’s head pops up when he is told in January 2020 that the pandemic could reach the scale of the 1918 Spanish Flu that killed 675,000 Americans. In 17 on-the-record interviews with Woodward over seven volatile months—an utterly vivid window into Trump’s mind—the president provides a self-portrait that is part denial and part combative interchange mixed with surprising moments of doubt as he glimpses the perils in the presidency and what he calls the “dynamite behind every door.” At key decision points, Rage shows how Trump’s responses to the crises of 2020 were rooted in the instincts, habits and style he developed during his first three years as president. Revisiting the earliest days of the Trump presidency, Rage reveals how Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats struggled to keep the country safe as the president dismantled any semblance of collegial national security decision making. Rage draws from hundreds of hours of interviews with firsthand witnesses as well as participants’ notes, emails, diaries, calendars and confidential documents. Woodward obtained 25 never-seen personal letters exchanged between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who describes the bond between the two leaders as out of a “fantasy film.” Trump insists to Woodward he will triumph over Covid-19 and the economic calamity. “Don’t worry about it, Bob. Okay?” Trump told the author in July. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll get to do another book. You’ll find I was right.”

Surrounded by well-meaning aides, physicians sworn to confidentiality, and in some cases, sycophants, the president of the United States usually keeps the state of his health well-guarded from the American public. Though the intention of the 25th Amendment is to provide for the removal of an impaired president, the level of discretion involved in such a decision has caused many to question whether it serves the national interest. In large part, the men who have served as president have been past middle age and susceptible to the dame maladies as the rest of the aged population. The complete medical history of each of the 41 U.S. presidents, emphasizing illnesses that affected them during their administrations, is here set out for the lay reader by a physician. The presidents' health care regimens (diet, exercise, home remedies, etc.) and physicians' treatments are also discussed.

Kept him from ever running for the presidency, and certainly should have kept him from running for reelection. Ferrell discusses possible cover-ups in the presidencies of John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, and leaves readers to draw their own conclusions about George Bush's arrhythmic heart and the possibility of Dan Quayle as sudden, accidental president of the United States. As the 1992 election campaign heats up, some commentators are already watching for Bush's.

An irresistible chronological overview of daily life in the presidential residence. Divided into 42 chapters representing each succeeding administration, this survey is brimming with fun facts, tantalizing tidbits, and memorable anecdotes detailing two centuries of domestic bliss and strife in the White House. From George Washington, who chose the sight and initiated work on the presidential mansion, to Bill Clinton, whose well-documented White House escapades titillated and scandalized the nation, each individual president has contributed to the mystique of the most readily recognized home in the U.S. Together with scores of drawings, portraits, and photographs, the breezy text chronicles the significant physical, social, and emotional changes wrought by each First Family as they sought to personalize daily life in the White House.

Behind the White House's impressive facade lies the long history of the men who have lived and governed within it's walls. From births to deaths, weddings to funerals, the White House has seen it all. In Best Little Stories from the White House, author C. Brian Kelly takes us on a tour of the White House's fascinating history, giving us a glimpse of the most memorable presidential moments: Theodore Roosevelt 's children once snuck their pony upstairs in the White House elevator to cheer up their sick brother. Winston Churchill once suffered a minor heart episode while struggling with a stuck window in the White House. John Quincy Adams was known to skinny-dip in the Potomac. Woodrow Wilson liked to chase up and down the White House corridors playing "rooster fighting" with his daughter Nellie.

An extraordinary yet almost unknown chapter in American history is revealed in this extensively researched expose. On July 1, 1893, President Grover Cleveland boarded a friend's yacht and was not heard from for five days. During that time, a team of doctors removed a cancerous tumor from the president's palate along with much of his upper jaw. When an enterprising reporter named E. J. Edwards exposed the secret operation, Cleveland denied it and Edwards was consequently dismissed as a disgrace to journalism. Twenty-four years later, one of the president's doctors finally revealed the incredible truth, but many Americans simply would not believe it. After all, Grover Cleveland's political career was built upon honesty--his most memorable quote was "Tell the truth"--so it was nearly impossible to believe he was involved in such a brazen cover-up. This is the first full account of the disappearance of Grover Cleveland during that summer more than a century ago.