Mourning the Presidents

Lindsay M. Chervinsky is a presidential historian and author of The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution. Matthew R. Costello is Vice President of the David M. Rubenstein National Center for White House History, Senior Historian for the White House Historical Association, and the author of The Property of the Nation: George Washington's Tomb, Mount Vernon, and the Memory of the First President.

Very informative and an interesting read, especially since it addresses a topic that many readers of the American presidency might not be aware of given that there is so little research on this topic. It also reminds scholars that the mourning process of presidents can help shape how the American public forms their overall views about the legacies of presidents.-- "Congress & the Presidency" Mourning the Presidency is a vital contribution to our understanding of the relationship of the people to the president, a relationship clarified in the outpouring of grief -- or at times, the macabre celebration -- that accompanies a president's death. More than that, it is a searching exploration of memory, history, and the complicated process of creating a presidential legacy. --Nicole Hemmer, Director of the Carolyn T. Robert M. Rogers Center for the American Presidency, Vanderbilt University This is a valuable volume on meaning and memory. By exploring the public reactions to the deaths of several American presidents, the editors and contributors shed light on the shifting legacies of our national leaders--and on the often complicated feelings of the led. --Jon Meacham, Rogers Chair in the American Presidency, Vanderbilt University