The Modern Era through the Present Day: 1909-2023

William Howard Taft

Term: 1909-1913, Republican Party

William H. Taft. The United States and Peace. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1914.

William Taft was very interested in promoting international peace. He gave this book to Sidney L. Gulick, a missionary who shared his interest in securing peace with Japan.

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Woodrow Wilson 

Term: 1913-1921, Democratic Party 

Woodrow Wilson. The Free Life: A Baccalaureate Address. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1908]. 

This book contains the text of a graduation address delivered during Woodrow Wilson’s Princeton University presidency. He inscribed this copy to a Mrs. Kirkman, whom he met on vacation at Rydal, a town in England’s Lake District.  

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Warren G. Harding

Term: 1921-1923, Republican Party

Lisle March Phillipps. Europe Unbound. London: Duckworth and Co., [1916].

Warren Harding inscribed this copy of Europe Unbound on the title page with his famous quotation about the war: “It must not be again – It must not be again! God grant that it shall not be.”

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Calvin Coolidge

Term: 1923-1929, Republican Party

Calvin Coolidge. Have Faith in Massachusetts: A Collection of Speeches and Messages. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, [1919].

A man of few words, Calvin Coolidge was nicknamed “Silent Cal.” Still, he gave a number of speeches as governor of Massachusetts, several of which are collected in the book Have Faith in Massachusetts. This copy is inscribed to Amelia D. Campbell, who in 1926 married Alton B. Parker, a judge who had run against Theodore Roosevelt in the 1904 presidential election.

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Herbert Hoover

Term: 1929-1933, Republican Party

Message of the President of the United States Transmitting the Budget for the Service of the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1931. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1929.

During his campaign for the presidency, Herbert Hoover stated, “We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land.” However, his poor money management as president destroyed the US economy and led to a nationwide depression. This copy of the printed budget of the United States from 1931 is signed by Hoover at the end of its introduction.

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Franklin D. Roosevelt

Term: 1933-1945, Democratic Party

Edgar Allan Poe. The Gift: A Christmas and New Year’s Present for 1836. Philadelphia: Carey & Hart, 1835.

This book is Franklin D. Roosevelt’s personal copy of the 19th-century gift book that contains “Ms. Found in a Bottle,” a story by Edgar Allan Poe. He inherited the book from his grandmother and kept it in his library at Hyde Park.

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Franklin D. Roosevelt

Term: 1933-1945, Democratic Party

Franklin D. Roosevelt. Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. Washington: The White House, Christmastide 1942.

This book contains the text of seven major war addresses by the Allied leaders from the first year of America’s involvement in World War II. It was printed by the Roosevelt administration as a Christmas gift, and the President gave this copy to the First Lady, inscribing it “For E.R. A month's episode, with much love from FDR.”

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Harry S. Truman

Term: 1945-1953, Democratic Party

Harry S. Truman. Truman Speaks. New York: Columbia University Press, 1960.

Truman Speaks contains Harry Truman’s lectures and discussions at Columbia University. He inscribed this copy to Eleanor Roosevelt, calling her the “First Lady of the World.”

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Dwight D. Eisenhower

Term: 1953-1961, Republican Party

Dwight D. Eisenhower. Crusade in Europe. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1948.

Crusade in Europe is Dwight D. Eisenhower’s memoir of his leadership in World War II. He signed this copy on a page bearing a facsimile of his official order of the D-Day Invasion, which offers words of encouragement to the Allied forces that are the origin of the book’s title: “You are about to embark on the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you.”

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John F. Kennedy

Term: 1961-1963, Democratic Party

Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States of America from George Washington 1789 to John F. Kennedy 1961. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1961.

John F. Kennedy planned to give this copy of the Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States to Dean Rusk, his Secretary of State. Jackie Kennedy inscribed the book on his behalf and gave it to Dean Rusk a few weeks after her husband’s death.

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Lyndon B. Johnson

Term: 1963-1969, Democratic Party

Harry Overstreet and Bonaro Overstreet. What We Must Know About Communism. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1958.

Lyndon B. Johnson presented this copy of What We Must Know About Communism to Hubert Humphrey as a birthday gift in 1959. In the inscription, he praises Humphrey for his “coordination of mind and tongue” – a talent that would become particularly useful when, as Johnson’s vice president, Humphrey served as the chief communicator of the administration’s efforts to combat communism, including the escalation of the Vietnam War.

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Richard Nixon

Term: 1969-1974, Republican Party

Richard Nixon. The Memoirs of Richard Nixon. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, [1978].

This copy of Richard Nixon’s Memoirs is inscribed to the Shah of Iran, Mohamed Reza Shah Pahlavi, “with deep appreciation for his friendship and for his strong, courageous leadership in the cause of peace, progress and justice for his own people and others throughout the world.” Nixon gifted the book to the Iranian ruler one year before the Iranian Revolution sent him into exile.

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Gerald R. Ford

Term: 1974-1977, Republican Party

Report of the Warren Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy. New York, London, Toronto: McGraw-Hill Book Company, [1964].

In 1963, Lyndon Johnson had appointed Gerald Ford to the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, better known as the Warren Commission after its chairman, Chief Justice Earl Warren. Among Ford’s duties for the commission was compiling a biography of Lee Harvey Oswald and interviewing Jack Ruby. This book – a copy of the Commission’s nearly 900-page report, autographed by Ford – was published in 1964.

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James Carter

Term: 1977-1981, Democratic Party

Earle Morrow Cassidy (editor). 1947 Lucky Bag. [Washington, D.C.: United States Naval Academy], 1947.

Jimmy Carter graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1946, and he served in the Navy’s submarine program until 1953. This is Carter’s copy of the yearbook of the US Naval Academy class of 1947. He graduated a year early as a result of an accelerated wartime program.

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Ronald Reagan

Term: 1981-1989, Republican Party

Daniel J. Boorstin, Brooks Mather Kelley, and Ruth Frankel Boorstin. A History of the United States. Lexington, MA: Ginn and Company, 1981.

Daniel J. Boorstin was a conservative historian whom Gerald Ford appointed Librarian of Congress in 1975, and he continued in that role for most of Ronald Reagan’s tenure in office. In 1980, Boorstin co-authored A History of the United States, a textbook for high school history courses, inscribing this copy for Reagan shortly before Reagan’s election to the presidency.

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George H. W. Bush

Term: 1989-1993, Republican Party

Booth Tarkington. Gentle Julia. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1933.

This book, Gentle Julia, was given to George H.W. Bush when he was 10 years old by its author, Booth Tarkington. Their families were friends who both had homes in Kennebunkport, Maine.

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William J. Clinton

Term: 1993-2001, Democratic Party

Bill Clinton. My Life, an Autobiography. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004.

My Life, an Autobiography was published in 2004, three years after Bill Clinton ended his second term. In the book, Clinton discusses his childhood in Hope, Arkansas, before he moved to Hot Springs, where he began his education. This book is personally inscribed to me, Natalie Flaxman.

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George W. Bush

Term: 2001-2009, Republican Party

George W. Bush. Portraits of Courage: A Commander in Chief’s Tribute to America’s Warrior. New York: Crown, 2017.

As president, George W. Bush sent troops into Afghanistan and Iraq. Bush began painting as a pastime after he completed his terms and produced a series of portraits inspired by photographs of mentally and physically wounded US Armed Forces veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq. Portraits of Courage consists of his oil paintings and stories written about military veterans. The book accompanied an exhibition of the portraits that ran from March 2 to October 17, 2017, at the George W. Bush Presidential Center. This copy is inscribed to my brother, Spencer Flaxman.

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Barack Obama

Term: 2009-2017, Democratic Party

Barack Obama. A Promised Land. New York: Crown, 2020.

After only four years in the Senate, Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008, making him the first African American president, and he served for eight years. In his book, A Promised Land, Obama wrote about his first term in office.

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Donald J. Trump

Term: 2017-2021, Republican Party

Donald J. Trump. Our Journey Together. N.p.: Winning Team Publishing, 2021.

Without political experience, Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election using the slogan “Make America Great Again.” This book, showing pictures of Trump’s presidency with brief and sometimes vulgar captions, was published by a small press co-founded by Donald Trump, Jr.

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Joseph R. Biden

Term: 2021-present, Democratic Party

Joe Biden. Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose. New York: Flatiron Books, 2017.

Our current president Joe Biden wrote Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose in 2017 when he was Barack Obama’s vice president. At his son Beau’s last Thanksgiving, he and his father had a meaningful conversation where Beau said, “Promise me, Dad . . . Give me your word that no matter what happens, you’re going to be all right.” This book discusses the details of the year after that meaningful conversation.

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