1 online resource (xi, 323 pages) :

From the unhappy family relationships of prominent Americans to the feuds, smear campaigns, duels, and infamous sex scandals that have punctuated our history, we see our Founding Fathers and other American heroes in the course of their all-too-human events. Ineffectual presidents, lazy generals, traitors; treacherous fathers, nagging mothers, ungrateful children, embarrassing siblings; and stories about insanity, death, and disturbing postmortems are all here, as are disagreeable marriages, vile habits, and, of course, sex: good sex, bad sex, and good-bad sex too. We can take comfort in the fact that we are no worse and no better than our forebears.--From publisher description

Includes bibliographical references (pages 319-321)

pt. 1: Family ties that bind--and gag. Prepare for a shock ; Mother Mary, quite contrary ; Foundering father ; I now pronounce you miserable ; Dishonor thy mother ; A short, ugly story ; With this ring, I thee dread ; Smother-in-law ; One bad apple tree ; Oh, brother! -- pt. 2: Cold wars. Feuding Founding Fathers ; Showdown at Weehawken ; Giving the Devil his duel ; Overreaction Jackson ; "The Eaton malaria" ; A not so civil war ; When "mush" came to shove ; "I'd rather vote for Hitler" ; General dissatisfaction ; LBJ vs. RFK -- pt. 3: Hail to the chaff. Zachary Taylor ; Franklin Pierce ; James Buchanan ; Andrew Johnson ; Ulysses S. Grant ; Grover Cleveland ; William McKinley ; William Howard Taft ; Woodrow Wilson -- John Tyler -- pt. 4: Congressional follies. Floor fights ; Sexcapades -- pt. 5: Cruel campaigns. "One continued tempest of malignant passions" ; "May God Almighty forgive her murderers" ; A horrid looking wretch he is" ; "Ma! Ma! Where's my Pa?" -- pt. 6: The American Hall of Shame. Benedict Arnold : hero, traitor, whiner ; Aaron Burr : "embryo-Caesar" ; Roger Taney : one mean Supreme ; Henry Wirz : manufactured monster ; A. Mitchell Palmer : seeing red ; Warren G. Harding : nice guy finishes last ; Joe McCarthy : Wisconsin sleaze ; 8. t J. Edgar Hoover : what a drag ; Richard Nixon : say what!? -- pt. 7: Murder, madness, and just plain strange episodes. Bewitched ; The man who would be queen ; Cellar dweller ; Explorer off course ; The case of the cuckolded congressman ; The other assassinations -- pt. 8: Remains to be seen. Boiling "mad" ; Tom Paine's farewell tour ; Abe Lincoln's indecent exposure ; The "resurrection" of John Scott Harrison ; John Paul Jones : pickled in Paris -- Presidents of the United States -- A brief history of the United States (through 1980)

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