Customer Reviews

Presidential Sites: A Directory of Places Associated with Presidents of the United States

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A great idea, but seriously flawed. Many of the entries are arranged illogically, and many of them contain dubious, incomplete, or plain inaccurate historical information. Worse, the author chose to include dozens of sites closed to the public, many with little historical interest -- a hotel or home that a president was said to have visited, for example. Would even the most enthusiastic presidential buff travel more than a block to see such a place? Worst of all, however, is the book's index, which renders it almost useless. Yes, the sites are arranged by state, but that's as far as it goes: for each state you'll see only a list of sites (no cities!), and not even a page number reference. Instead, you're given a president's name, and must leaf through the book to find Hoover, for example, before you realize the site is in a distant corner of the state, or isn't even a public place at all.

This is a well researched and well written book. I am particularly impressed that it includes a lot of sites not normally found in other publications or web sites.