Confronting the Presidents: No Spin Assessments From Washington to Biden is a collection of brief biographies of all the presidents of the United States from George Washington to Barack Obama, with two essays reflecting on the presidencies of Donald Trump and Joe Biden, the most recent presidencies at the time of the book’s publication in 2024 by St. Martin’s Press. The book was co-written by Bill O’Reilly, best known as a former television news host and commentator on FOX News, and Martin Dugard, a journalist and historian. Confronting the Presidents is the latest in a series of nonfiction books, mostly about United States history, written by both O’Reilly and Dugard, which have previously included “killing” in their titles (Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever, Killing Jesus: A History, and others).

O’Reilly and Dugard use primary documents such as letters and memoirs to reconstruct the personal lives and political careers of the presidents. A focus throughout the biographies is on the individual characters of the presidents, as the authors consider how their personalities and ethics shaped the role of the federal government and either unified or divided the nation.

This guide refers to the 2024 hardcover print edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of death, child death, racism, mental illness, death by suicide, physical abuse, and addiction. In particular, the text discusses enslavement, anti-Black racism and violence, and anti-Indigenous racism, including forced displacement.

Summary

O’Reilly and Dugard describe this book as a shift in their series of history books, primarily about US history. Though this book moves from “killing” to “confronting”—shifting toward a broader consideration of historical figures’ lives rather than a focus on their deaths—it will have the same “style,” meaning “no fussing around, right to the point” (1).

The framers of the United States Constitution fought bitterly over political disagreements, forming rival factions and parties as early as George Washington’s second term. They were especially divided over the balance of power of the federal and state governments, a debate that would continue throughout the history of the US presidency. While the Founding Fathers tended to be upper-class, the election of President Andrew Jackson in 1828 saw “‘populist’ candidates […] replacing aristocrats” (53).

In the authors’ view, a series of weak US presidents allowed intense divisions to appear over the issue of slavery in the late 18th and 19th centuries. The authors blame the beginning of the US Civil War in part on the “ineptitude” of President James Buchanan (124), who failed to effectively address the issue of laws banning or allowing slavery in the new states of Oregon and Kansas. The decisive leadership of the next president, Abraham Lincoln, got the United States through the Civil War. Likewise, after Lincoln’s assassination by John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln’s successor, Andrew Johnson, weakened the post-war reconciliation effort known as Reconstruction.

Into the 20th century, presidents found themselves confronting the consequences of industrialization, the rise of powerful corporations, and the United States’ new place as a major world power. By the late 19th century, President Rutherford B. Hayes acknowledged that “America [wa]s now being exploited by men of great wealth” (160). Just as Lincoln helped the United States through the Civil War, another strong leader emerged to combat such corruption and disproportionate influence: President Theodore Roosevelt. Later, when the United States had to deal with the Great Depression and World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt (Theodore Roosevelt’s cousin) presided over an extension of the federal government, “creating a colossus in Washington” (272). In the post-World War II era, presidents were behind the creation of programs that benefited lower-income Americans, like Social Security and Medicare. However, the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., dampened America’s hopes, and the Vietnam War eroded trust in the federal government. The authors claim that President Ronald Reagan restored confidence and optimism among the American people, while the 21st century and the term of Barack Obama saw escalating polarization between supporters of the Democratic and Republican Parties. Such polarization has continued into the present day, culminating in a riot at the Capitol over election results contested by President Donald Trump on January 6, 2020.