Citizen-In-Chief: The Second Lives of the American Presidents

"What shall be done with our ex-presidents? It has been suggested that they be taken out in a five-acre lot and shot." -Grover Cleveland, the only man to reclaim the presidency after leaving it.

Part commander-in-chief, part national symbol, the role of president of the United States of America has been studied and commemorated by a rich trove of literature. Yet, despite the vast scholarship available, the lives of our presidents after leaving office remain remarkably unprobed. In Citizen-in-Chief, Leonard Benardo and Jennifer Weiss reveal that the true stories of these great leaders, whose quest for power brought them to the country's highest office, are rarely complete once they leave the White House.

Citizen-in-Chief examines the dramatic, little-known, and often heart-rending post-presidential lives of former Oval Office occupants. It offers the most in-depth look to date at the diverse and broad-ranging paths these famous-sometimes notorious-men have taken:

- Destitute at his death, fifth president James Monroe was buried in New York, too poor to be transported to his native Virginia.
- After ending Reconstruction and removing Union troops from the South during his single term presidency, Rutherford B. Hayes went on to crusade progressive reform on behalf of African Americans.
- Known for "Hoovervilles" and not heroics during the Great Depression, Herbert Hoover spent his post presidential years championing overseas relief work.
- After a middling presidency, John Quincy Adams reinvented himself as a progressive member of Congress, spending seventeen years as a significant antislavery advocate.
- Nearly a decade after his lone term in office, William Howard Taft went on to advocate peace-building efforts through international arbitration during WWI, and later ascended to the position of chief justice of the Supreme Court.

From the high-profile humanitarianism of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, to the quiet achievements of Rutherford B. Hayes and Herbert Hoover, Citizen-in-Chief is a surprising and thoughtful must read for political junkies and history buffs alike.