https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B7QNZJ8J/
Presidential Chronicles Volume IV looks like a great book. Can you tell us a little about it?
“War and Its Aftermath is the fourth of five volumes released thus far in the “Presidential Chronicles” series, which I describe as the series of books (and videos) on American history as seen through the lives of the Presidents of the United States. Each volume in the series features five “robust yet concise” biographies, with Volume IV focusing on the lives of Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses Grant, Rutherford Hayes, and James Garfield (#16-20).
From the back
of the book: Fisher
delves deeply into a nation divided over slavery and states’ rights, beginning
with the most extensive contribution of the biographical series with his focus
on the nation’s 16th President, Abraham Lincoln. Fisher makes extensive use of Lincoln’s own
words to understand the growth of his political ideology, the endless string of
difficult choices he faced, his unwavering commitment to preserving the Union,
and his transition from slavery opponent to outright abolitionist – all in the
context of a Constitutional interpretation that stretched the bounds of the
founding document. The Civil War is
explored from the view of a President, a wartime Governor, a Commanding
General, and a pair of colonels/brigadiers who fought the battles that helped
preserve the Union. War and Its
Aftermath further gives life to the nation’s struggles in the
Reconstruction era as these leaders tried to balance the competing sectional
interests on how to reunify despite the inherent divides that continued to
persist.
What inspired you when writing Presidential Chronicles Volume IV?
Over the past couple of centuries, about a half billion people have called themselves Americans, but only 45 have served as President of the United States. There is something special about the lives of these individuals, what they represented and had to offer that was sufficiently compelling to place them in this unique position of leadership. These stories fascinate me, and can serve as an inspiration to others.
Their experiences also represent invaluable opportunities to
learn, particularly from our past mistakes.
While the current generation always sees itself as the best or worst at
everything, facing conditions unlike anything seen before, that is actually
rarely the case. Many, if not most, of
our current challenges, have been seen before in various shapes and sizes, and
the stories of the lives of our Presidents exposes many of these learning
opportunities. I try to tease these out
as part of my storytelling.
What will readers get out of your book?
Readers will learn about these fascinating lives with context and perspective in tightly constructed works. They will get a lot of first-person quotations, as I believe the best way to know what people were thinking or why they did what they did is from their own words. They’ll also get visuals. There are 369 images scattered throughout Volume IV, many of which are pulled from late 19th Century and early 20th Century biographies, thereby providing many images that most people have never seen. (For example, the Lincoln biography alone has 112 images, 100% of which come from my library of Lincoln biographies.) I place these images in the context of the stories (not in a centerpiece of several pages of just images which is the common practice but one that I find outside the flow of most biographies) to help the reader truly visualize the stories being told.
In terms of Volume IV, the reader will get:
A fresh take on Abraham Lincoln, which includes not only his personal greatness and the outcomes he enabled the country to achieve, but also some new perspectives on Lincoln’s unique relationship with the Declaration of Independence and how he stretched the Constitution almost beyond recognition in his quest to save the Union. I also explore Lincoln’s personal demons – those who knew him best often described him as the saddest man alive.
The heartbeat of the Andrew Johnson biography is his impeachment, the first for an American President in our history, whose precedents had a direct bearing on the most recent presidential impeachments that played out before our eyes.
Understanding the first half of the life of Ulysses Grant makes it hard to imagine that he would have risen to prominence during the nation’s greatest peril, both on the battlefield and in the White House. But his heroic brand of leadership and tenacity came through at just the right time for a nation that needed it to survive.
Rutherford Hayes may have been the kindest person ever to serve as President of the United States, but he also made arguably the most fateful decision of any American President when he agreed to end Reconstruction. The lives of Southern Blacks were devastated by this decision, which persevered through generation after generation for nearly 100 years.
James Garfield lived the American Dream, coming from the
one-room log cabin on the American frontier, benefitting from an education, to
become a politician, military officer, and a dark horse President of the United
States. The story of his rise is an
“only in America” tale. And yet, the 200
days he spent as President were the worst of his entire life, including the
last 80 where he fought unsuccessfully for his life after being gunned down in
a DC railroad station.
What inspired the idea for your book series?
I’ve been a presidential enthusiast most of my adult life. I have built one of the most comprehensive collections of first edition presidential biographies (more than 1,100 books in the collection), and have read more than 200 of them. I’ve gotten to know these people – their trials and triumphs – and felt like I had stories to tell that people would find interesting and compelling, along with the perspective that comes from understanding the path of all these people, whose lives often intersect, personally, politically, and ideologically.
The gap I’ve always perceived in the market for presidential
biographies is in the sweet spot of full and robust renderings, but in a
concise format. In other words, while I
will always enjoy the 800+ page individual portrayals of our Presidents (a la,
Chernow, McCullough, or Meacham), many people who may be interested in these
subjects simply don’t have the time or patience to work their way through such
tomes. At the same time, we’ve seen an
increase in super short Wikipedia-like biographies (think “hourly history”)
that simply skim the surface. There
isn’t much in the middle that identify the most important and relevant stories
from each of these lives, but told in a robust manner. My target is about 150 pages per biography
(perhaps 40,000 words or so). I sell
these as individual e-Books, but offer them in groups of five in the printed
volumes. I truly believe this “robust
yet concise” form of presidential biographies is a gap in the market that
deserves to be explored.
How did you come up with the ideas in Presidential Chronicles Volume IV?
My biographies are based on my reading from my personal
collection of more than 1,100 first edition presidential biographies. For each President, I basically keep reading
(researching) until I feel I have a complete grasp of these people and their
stories – to the point where I can not only convey what they did, but
also why they did it, and the impact of their actions (on them and their
country). I always seek a mixture of
perspectives in my research, including modern biographies as well as
contemporary works written nearer to the lifetime of the subject. I look for sympathetic biographies, as well
as oppositional ones – again seeking a 360 degree view of my subject. Once I feel I have this full view, as
captured in my detailed notes, I start writing.
What part of the book did you have the hardest time writing?
Writing about slavery (and, in the case of Volume IV, also
civil rights in the post-Civil War Reconstruction era) is always the hardest thing
to do when discussing American history.
Even the language used is often challenging when discussing that portion
of our history. It is nearly impossible
to relate to the evils of that practice, and yet, as a historian, it is
necessary to acknowledge and understand the practice of slavery from the views
of the times in which it existed, rather than overly-imposing 21st
Century perspectives on the practice.
Understanding why these people – these Americans – did what they did in
the context of their times is emotionally and intellectually the most difficult
part of telling the stories of American history.
Can you tell us a little about your background?
I live in Bethesda, MD, just outside Washington, D.C. I came here from Silicon Valley with my
family nearly two decades ago to work in the Federal government. I served in senior executive positions at the
Department of Defense, the Government Accountability Office (Chief Financial
Officer), and the Internal Revenue Service (Chief Risk Officer). I left the Federal service after about 10
years, and have been working as a Partner in one of the large Consulting Firms
as an expect in risk management. I
started writing “on the side,” but it has taken on much more prominence in my
life over the past several years, to the point where I went part-time in my
consulting work about two years ago to focus more and more on my books and
videos.
Where can readers find out more about your work?
Probably the best place would be my website (www.presidentialchronicles.com).
While it may not be directly relevant, you’ll noticed I mentioned
“videos” in a couple of places in these responses. At the beginning of 2022, I launched a
companion series of Presidential Chronicles on YouTube. I’m taking the stories from each of these 25
biographies and breaking them down into ten episodes per President, each about
10-12 minutes in duration, to provide yet another medium to render these
presidential stories. I post a new video
each weekday, which will eventually encompass 250 episodes this year, which
will take us right up to the end of the year.