Sex with Presidents
The Ins and Outs of Love and Lust in the White House
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- £7.99
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- £7.99
Publisher Description
In this fascinating work of popular history, the New York Times bestselling author of Sex with Kings and The Royal Art of Poison uncovers the bedroom secrets of American presidents and explores the surprising ways voters have reacted to their leaders’ sex scandals.
While Americans have a reputation for being strait-laced, many of the nation’s leaders have been anything but puritanical. Alexander Hamilton had a steamy affair with a blackmailing prostitute. John F. Kennedy swam nude with female staff in the White House swimming pool. Is it possible the qualities needed to run for president—narcissism, a thirst for power, a desire for importance—go hand in hand with a tendency to sexual misdoing?
In this entertaining and eye-opening book, Eleanor Herman revisits some of the sex scandals that have rocked the nation's capital and shocked the public, while asking the provocative questions: does rampant adultery show a lack of character or the stamina needed to run the country? Or perhaps both? While Americans have judged their leaders' affairs harshly compared to other nations, did they mostly just hate being lied to? And do they now clearly care more about issues other than a politician’s sex life?
What is sex like with the most powerful man in the world? Is it better than with your average Joe? And when America finally elects a female president, will she, too, have sexual escapades in the Oval Office?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Historian Herman (The Royal Art of Poison) examines the love lives of U.S. politicians in this gossip-fueled account. "The same compulsions that send a man hurtling toward the White House," Herman writes, "can also send him into a foolhardy tryst with a woman." She draws on tell-all memoirs, letters, court records, and media reports to document political sex scandals, including Treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton's affair with Maria Reynolds, and Maria Halpin's rape accusations against Grover Cleveland. According to Herman, Woodrow Wilson had a "raging libido." She also claims that Dwight Eisenhower dropped his wartime lover, Kay Summersby, because divorcing his wife, Mamie, would have cost him the presidency in 1952, and that Lyndon Johnson had a buzzer system installed after Lady Bird caught him and one of his secretaries "in flagrante delicto" on an Oval Office couch. Self-admitted philanderer Bill Clinton learned from Gary Hart's downfall in the 1988 campaign to "address the issue right off the bat" in the 1992 campaign, according to Herman. Packed with colorful character sketches and bawdy puns, Herman's m lange of facts, rumors, and innuendo is more salacious than scrupulous. Still, this ribald and richly detailed history entertains.
