This book is the story of the eight vice-presidents who have succeeded to the American presidency after the death whilst still in office of the incumbents. Interesting – up to a point. But I didn’t find that the writing drew me in and overall I found it a fairly dry and occasionally tedious read. I never felt that I got to know these men in any depth, and I found myself skipping large chunks. One for the devotee of political sagas rather than anyone looking for the human stories behind the politics.

To me, as an international political science graduate, this book is everything I could wish for and more. Accidental presidents offers a new perspective, a dive into a world we don’t see too much off and an understanding of previous presidents that changed the nation and the world somehow. I enjoyed it very much and would absolutely recommend it to anyone interested in the USA and history.

Accidental Presidents: Eight Men Who Changed America is fascinating and intriguing reading. Five stars.

The vice president is a unique political position in that the person inhabiting it remains largely forgotten until they’re needed. Yet, eight times an American president has died in office, and eight times the vice president has assumed that office. With such a high frequency of occurrence, it could be assumed that the Framers of the Constitution understood the necessity of keeping the country going after the death of a president. And yet the vast majority of these successions have led to, at best, tumultuous administrations.

Author Jared Cohen deftly explores each of these administrations, starting with the disastrous John Tyler, best known for being kicked out of his own party and as the first president threatened with impeachment. These chapters on the early presidential successors are as twisty as the administrations they describe. Making ample use of anecdotes pulled from a wealth of research, Cohen details the confusion that originally surrounded presidential succession. With John Tyler, was he supposed to be the president, or an acting president? And what became of the vacant vice presidency? Though codified in the Constitution, the language wasn’t always clear.

But beyond this, Cohen paints broad portraits of each of his eight subjects. To gain a full understanding of their ascension, each section contains a brief biography followed by an in-depth look at their political careers. By the time he gets around to exploring their actual administrations, Cohen has provided plenty of background to showcase why their terms went in the directions they did. Teddy Roosevelt, forward and focused, grasped the reins from an assassinated William McKinley. Meanwhile, Andrew Johnson, never fully removed from the South, bungled Reconstruction after Lincoln’s assassination.

While not exhaustive, Cohen provides each president enough attention that his work feels comprehensive. It should be noted, however, that he does not discuss Gerald Ford in-depth because Ford became president through Nixon’s resignation rather than death. It’s understandable that this case doesn’t meet his scope, but this chapter is missed if only because it would have provided more pages to an engrossing read.

Presidential succession seems to be on a lot of minds, and it’s impossible not to read this without considering the current administration. Cohen is careful point out that he started this book far before the last presidential election cycle. Even so, it’s a fascinating examination of the succession process while serving as a reminder of the importance of the often thankless role of vice president— they’re only a heartbeat away from serving.

Accidential Presidents gives a captivating in-depth look into an aspect of American government rarely considered, even by those most likely to be directly affected: the succession to the presidency in the case of death or impeachment. It highlights the eight men who have risen from the vice presidency, a position widely considered useless even by those who have held the job, to presidency, and the difficult choices they have had to make, for better or worse. In characterizing the problems these men faced, including ambiguity of the Constitution regarding the line of succession, Cabinets opposed to the new acting president, and lack of information before succession about the previous administration, Jared Cohen both brings their stories to life and presents considerations, both those made in the past and those that still could be made, to make transition to a new president following tragedy smoother. I definetely recommend this book and think it would be a great read for a high school American history course.

I’ll be honest and say that I’m a bad historian because I find presidents super boring. Like, ridiculously, mind numbingly boring. But I’ll be damned if this isn’t the most interesting book on any president I’ve ever come across, and what makes it even better is that it covers a number of presidents, not just one.

Excellent, Jared Cohen. Excellent.

Examining the eight Vice Presidents who assumed the presidency due to the death of their predecessors in office is an interesting premise for a book, and with Accidental Presidents, Jared Cohen pulls it off nicely. He seems to warm to his subject as the chapters go on (probably because the later presidents and the circumstances they find themselves in are more compelling than the earlier ones—let’s face it, who really remembers Millard Fillmore or Chester Arthur?). Although some biographical information on each is included, the book’s focus is firmly on the vice presidencies of these eight men and their ascent to the White House, and on how prepared or, in most cases, unprepared they were for their new role. I found the chapters on Harry Truman the most fascinating in this respect, as he (along with Andrew Johnson) arguably faced the most difficult issues from the moment he took the oath. (Interestingly, Truman is one of the two accidental presidents—Teddy Roosevelt is the other—who gets highest marks from Cohen, who ranks Johnson as the worst.)

There were times when I wished I had more historical context—Cohen does try to set the stage for each presidency, but this is certainly not an exhaustive study—but I think this is just a natural constraint of the project’s scope. Chock full of fun facts and interesting historical tidbits (who knew that Eleanor Roosevelt wrote HUNDREDS of letters to Harry Truman offering unsolicited advice on every issue imaginable?), Accidental Presidents is a nice addition to the genre.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing me with an ARC of this title in return for my honest review.

This book is well written and researched. Each chapter (except Harry Truman who gets two for some reason)  is devoted to one of the eight vice presidents who came into office due to the death of the president. The chapter covers the selection process of the vice president and their role after becoming president. The author also covers the evolving process of who actually became president and under what title until the 25th amendment was passed. There is also a chapter on the near misses due to assination attempts and illness. The only thing I felt was missing was a chapter on Gerald Ford who became president due to a resignation instead of a death in order to make the book complete.

I recommend this book to anyone who had an interest in american history and particularly about the development of succession to the presidency upon the death of the one in office.

I received a free Kindle copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon and my fiction book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook and Twitter pages.

Jared Cohen in Accidental Presidents has written a very informative and entertaining book on the seven men who ascended to the Presidency following a death in office or an assassination of their predecessor. Amid all the interesting tidbits about the role of vice presidents traditionally and the unique circumstances of just how each accidental president became president, there is a very serious point to be make here about presidential succession as a constitutional matter and having someone who can step in.

What one discovers is that most of these men were in fact accidents in a sense that they were often chosen for political reasons rather than any particular traits that had stamped them as presidential timber had the worst happened (which it did). It turns out that what makes one an acceptable vice president may not make them a great president. Some rose to the occasion, while others faltered, and one was even impeached.

Cohen found out about near misses that I didn’t even know about. Such as the guy who followed JFK around. Also why did so many people want to kill Gerald Ford? He’s like the lime Jell-O of US Presidents. Accidental Presidents blends history and humorous anecdotes to ponder real concerns on presidential succession.

A well-researched look at 8 of the 9 vice-presidents that unexpectedly became president over the course of US history. Gerald Ford is conspicuously missing from this volume. I presume this is because he ascended to the presidency from Nixon’s resignation rather than following a presidential death, as the others had. However, this distinction doesn’t seem to matter for the premise of the book.

Overall, a lot of information, but the organization of the facts and the cohesion of the book as a whole is lacking. To create context for some stories, background facts derail the narrative and transitions between presidents.

Accidental Presidents is a thoroughly researched, in-depth look at the people who became presidents of the United States “accidentally,” that is, by their being the vice president at a time when the president died, so they took over the job of president.

The book discusses John Tyler, the first accidental president, who following the death of William Henry Harrison after only a month or so in office, and the protocol not being exactly clear on what was to happen in such a situation, calmly took over the reins, basically being like, no problem, I’ll do this job now. It also discusses Andrew Johnson - who became president after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Chester Arthur – who became president after the assassination of James Garfield, and Theodore Roosevelt – who became president after the assassination of William McKinley. (After this series of unfortunate events, the Secret Service really stepped it up, and for good reason.) Then the book talks about Calvin Coolidge - who became president upon the death of Warren Harding, Harry Truman – who became president upon the death of Franklin Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson – who became president after the shooting of JFK.

The only accidental president the book did not examine was Gerald Ford – who became president upon the resignation of Richard Nixon. Maybe he was not included because it was a different kind of circumstance altogether.

This book is good for history buffs who like exploring lesser known historical facts, or for someone wanting a refresher course on many of the American Presidents.

Note: I received an advance copy of this book through Netgalley.