Abraham Lincoln was born to poor parents, in a log cabin on the western frontier of a young nation. The unity of the United States, which had been built on the ideal that all people are… Read More →

In 1829 Andrew Jackson became the seventh president of the United States, the first who did not come from a wealthy, east coast family. Jackson led an adventurous—some would say… Read More →

Dwight D. Eisenhower spent almost his entire lifetime serving his country. After attending West Point, he began a celebrated military career highlighted by becoming supreme commander of the… Read More →

When Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office in 1932, the United States was in crisis. The Great Depression had left many people unemployed, homeless, and desperate. Roosevelt established a… Read More →

In 1789, when George Washington took office as the nation's first president, the United States was an experiment that could easily fail. Only a few years earlier, the fledgling democracy had… Read More →

In the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, then Vice President Gerald Ford became the first person to succeed a president who had resigned from office. Although Ford’s presidency lasted only… Read More →

By the time he became the fourth president of the United States in 1807, James Madison was already a legend. Although he was a short, slight man with a quiet voice, he had played an… Read More →

When John F. Kennedy became the youngest person ever elected president of the United States in 1961, he stepped to the forefront of an invisible battleground. The Cold War standoff between… Read More →

Theodore Roosevelt was thrust into the presidency after William McKinley's assassination in 1901. He led the country into the Progressive Era, which meant stronger government controls over… Read More →