An Ordinary Man

book title

An Ordinary Man



Richard Norton Smith
Published Date : 2023-04-11
Amazon

Description

From the preeminent presidential scholar and acclaimed biographer of historical figures including George Washington, Herbert Hoover, and Nelson Rockefeller comes this eye-opening life of Gerald R. Ford, whose presidency arguably set the course for post-liberal America and a post-Cold War world. For many Americans, President Gerald Ford was the genial accident of history who controversially pardoned his Watergate-tarnished predecessor, presided over the fall of Saigon, and became a punching bag on Saturday Night Live. Yet as Richard Norton Smith reveals in a book full of surprises, Ford was an underrated leader whose tough decisions and personal decency look better with the passage of time. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and thousands of documents, Smith recreates Ford’s hardscrabble childhood in Michigan, his early anti-establishment politics and lifelong love affair with the former Betty Bloomer, whose impact on American culture he predicted would outrank his own. As president, Ford guided the nation through its worst Constitutional crisis since the Civil War and broke the back of the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression–accomplishing both with little fanfare or credit (at least until 2001 when the JFK Library gave him its prestigious Profile in Courage Award in belated recognition of the Nixon pardon). Less coda than curtain raiser, Ford’s administration bridged the Republican pragmatism of Eisenhower and Nixon and the more doctrinaire conservatism of Ronald Reagan. His introduction of economic deregulation would transform the American economy, while his embrace of the Helsinki Accords hastened the collapse of the Soviet Union. Illustrated with sixteen pages of black-and-white photos, this definitive biography, a decade in the making, will change history’s views of a man whose warning about presidential arrogance (“God help the country”) is more relevant than ever.


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Gerald
War
American
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presidential
Nixon
Smith
economic
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outrank
post-Cold
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Illustrated
passage
scholar
Civil
biography
decisions
Night
Reagan
His
underrated
leader
full
change
Depression–accomplishing
personal
Saigon
pragmatism
making
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lifelong
presided
country
photos
predicted
historys
presidency
hastened
fall
coda
economy
president
impact
downturn
history
figures
gave
collapse
belated
bag
sixteen
surprises
thousands
Award
pardoned
George
man
Helsinki
Eisenhower
Washington
President
Courage
crisis
Bloomer
curtain
affair
JFK
relevant
life
biographer
politics
interviews
Herbert
Union
raiser
accident
Watergate-tarnished
severe
pages
recreates
worst
reveals
Live
conservatism
Republican
Rockefeller
Constitutional
preeminent
doctrinaire
decade
eye-opening
documents
From
Hoover
fanfare
historical
nation
introduction
God
punching
Michigan
Soviet
broke
tough
black-and-white
recognition
including
acclaimed
deregulation
transform
hardscrabble
arrogance
Saturday
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prestigious
childhood
arguably
early
hundreds
predecessor
culture
embrace
world
America
Norton
post-liberal
controversially
book
anti-establishment
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Nelson
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views
Richard
back
pardon
love
bridged
Accords
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Library
set
Ronald
Great
Betty
Drawing
credit
genial
Profile
time
decency
definitive
warning
guided

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