A Visual Encyclopedia of Modern American Presidents

Book excerpt: The 20th century proved to be one of immense and rapid social and economic change for the United States of America. This illustrated encyclopedia of the presidents from 1901 presents a factual account of each of the presidents who have stood for office, and sets them within context of the times in which they each presided. Many have become synonymous with domestic and international events, such as Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal, Richard Nixon and Watergate, Ronald Reagan and Star Wars, and Jimmy Carter and the Iranian hostage crisis. Alongside each of the presidential portraits are snapshots of industrial, economic, social and political developments that have changed the world, such as Henry Ford and the mass production of the motor car, the invention of the atomic bomb, the collapse of communism and international terrorism.