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About My Books . . .Our Country's Presidents
 Summing it up—Jacket copy
[ back to top ] Behind the scenes—election 2000I wrote Our Country's Presidents during the election year of 2000. It was a perfect time to study U.S. Presidents, elections from years past, and American history. This book was a collaborative project with the National Geographic Society. As hard as I worked on the text, others worked just as hard finding the photos, designing the fit of text and images, and editing everything into a well-timed, inviting book. None of us expected our book about history to be caught up in history, but that's exactly what happened thanks to the events of Election 2000. When we went to bed the night of Election Day, all of us planned to wake up and put the finishing touches on a book that featured the newest U.S. President. We had parallel pages about President Al Gore and about President George W. Bush for everything from the front cover to the index, from an introduction by the newest President to an introductory essay about him. The rest of our book, from George Washington to Bill Clinton, was ready and waiting to be printed. So much for best-laid plans. Instead we woke up to five weeks of uncertainty, revision, substitution (it's Gore, no, it's Bush, no Gore. . .), and delay. Instead of recording history, we were living through it. What a thrill—and a challenge. I followed news accounts, trying to keep my facts and rewrites up-to-date. Our photo editor found new images about the controversial election that replaced less timely ones. Our designer and my editor patiently substituted one change after another after another into the layouts. Staff members at National Geographic juggled revised printing schedules, creating "what if" dates that would work if only the election results would become final. Those "what ifs" came to pass after the Supreme Court ended vote counting on December 12, 2000, and Al Gore conceded the race. We polished up our final changes in time for a late-December print run that actually put Our Country's Presidents into the bookstores the same week that George W. Bush took the oath of office to become our nation's 43rd President.
[ back to top ] About the latest editionIn 2004 I collaborated once more during an election year with National Geographic on Our Country's Presidents. This time we planned to revise and expand our original edition, keeping it current with the outcome of the presidential election. Once again we developed parallel editions of our book—one for a reelected George W. Bush and the other with John Kerry as our 44th President. Once again we followed the ups and downs of the campaign season. And, once again, with the arrival of Election Day, we witnessed uncertainty over the election's outcome. This time, though, the news kept up with our production schedule and Our Country's Presidents, revised and expanded, made it to the printer as planned. The latest edition of Our Country's Presidents features 16 pages of additional material, including new features on "The Vice Presidents: Leaders Just a Heartbeat Away," "Presidents at War: Serving as Commander in Chief," an essay and map about presidential landmarks, and a two-page spread explaining the electoral college. We updated and revised almost every page of the original edition, too, changing items as insignificant as a punctuation mark and as historic as the death of a former President (Ronald Reagan). Dozens of new photos took their places in the book. We reorganized and revised many of the book's original feature spreads, too, changing "Election 2000," for example, into "Election Day: Landslides, Upsets, and Contested Results." Since books have a predetermined number of pages, we created two options for how to end our 208-page book—one for each possible election outcome. Had John Kerry become President, his profile would have filled the final spread in the book. With his defeat, our alternate two-page essay on "Former Presidents: Serving as Elder Statesmen" earned its place as the conclusion of this latest edition of Our Country's Presidents. [ back to top ] On the stageAuthor program. Follow this link to find out about an author program related to this book. The program is called "Nothing but the Facts: A Not-so-trivial Look at Our Country's Presidents and First Ladies." General information about Author Visits is available, too. Awards and recognition2006 Books for the Teen Age 2002 Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People Reviews"This attractive volume, originally published in 2001, has been revised and expanded to include the 2004 election. . . .The short profiles provide essential information for report writers. Related links and resourcesThe American PresidencyGrolier Encyclopedia Profiles of American Presidents Library of Congress American Memory Portraits of the Presidents and First Ladies |
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