American Caesars: Lives of the US Presidents, from Franklin D. Roosevelt to George W. Bush - Tapa dura

"Rogues and (a few) heroes - they are all here in this impressive gallop through eighty years of US history" (Robert Chesshyre Literary Review)

"He has written a provocative, stimulating, infuriating and readable history" (Hugh MacDonald The Herald)

"[An] engaging book. American Caesars is a commanding study on the nature of personal authority and the presidency. It is also a poignant one..." (Richard Aldous The Irish Times)

"This is a delight of a summer book: history for the beach, politics for the deckchair, and waspish entertainment come rain or shine" (Peter Preston The Guardian)

"This is an excellent journey through recent American history, which serves another of history's most fundamental purposes: to help us better understand the present through the past" (Dan Jones The Times)

Suetonius' The Twelve Caesars became a classic of classical times: a virtuoso literary portrait gallery, remarkable not only for its frank dissections of Rome's great emperors, but also because the twelve men were the embodiment - both good and bad - of Rome's greatest century.

In view of the country's rise to superpower status, the twentieth century has been called 'the American Century', and award-winning biographer Nigel Hamilton now gives us the lives of the twelve men who presided over America's imperial fortunes - the good, the bad and the truly awful.

Not since the days of the Roman emperors has there been such a succession of rulers holding the fate of the world in their hands. How did these American Caesars reach the White House? What were the challenges they faced when they got there and how did they meet them? And who were these men in their private lives?

Nigel Hamilton's short, candid, critical portraits of the presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to George W. Bush are compulsively readable. Packed with unforgettable characters as well as stories, lessons and revelations, American Caears is essential reading for our times: a vivid portrait of the United States over the past six decades to rival Suetonius' account of classical Rome.