is a Presidential historian, New York Times bestselling author and advisor to two presidents. He served as special assistant to the president in the George Herbert Walker Bush White House. In 1979 he co-founded Mercy Corps and the International Charity Awards.
All The Presidents ChildrenIt was an instant New York Times bestseller and reached number one on Amazon.com. All the President's Children is the first in an ongoing trilogy of books about the first families, that will eventually cover the children, parents and siblings of our nation's leaders.
Drawing on unpublished diaries, presidential letters, discussions and interviews with six presidents and first ladies, as well as nineteen of the living presidential children, Wead tracks the lives of the nation's most famous offspring from Jacky Custis, stepson to George Washington, to the twin daughters of president George W. Bush. Featuring lively anecdotes, photograpsh, short biographies, and never before published personal accounts, All the Presidents' Children is an important socio-cultural work, a groundbreaking study of American family dynamics, and an entertaining foray into the homes, hearts, and history of our forefathers.
"Massively researched, superbly written, this is the long-awaited study of a difficult subject often hidden by presidents and their families. It is a piece of American history that solves many mysteries."
- Steven Lee Carson,
Chairman, White House Conference on Presidential Children
The second volume in Doug Wead's twenty year, ongoing trilogy on the first families. It offers an account of the lives of the parents of our chief executives and is a companion book to the instant New York Times bestseller All the Presidents' Children.
In The Raising of a President Doug Wead goes where no presidential biographer has gone before: straight to the childhood homes of America's greatest leaders. Wead analyzes the types of families in which they were reared, and offers fascinating psychological profiles based on his findings. Using presidential letters and personal correspondence -- as well as notes from his own private conversations with six presidential families -- Wead brilliantly portrays the early lives, loves, and political awakenings of George Washington; John Adams and the rest of America's first dynasty; Lincoln, who never betrayed his humble roots; Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy, each raised in prominent political households; and the once and future commanders in chief Bush.
"Epic! A remarkable perspective, with unforgetable, haunting stories. One sees the American presidents through a more intimate lens. The true inside story of our most powerful families."
- Peter Schweizer,
Hoover Institute, Stanford University;
author of The Bushes: Portrait of a Dynasty
"This is my favorite book. I read it to my children. The account of Lincoln's youth is unforgetable and inspiring."
- E. D. Hill, Fox Television
Link to Doug Wead's material at the Complete Mentor
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Doug Wead is a presidential historian and New York Times bestselling author. He has been an advisor to two presidents and served on senior staff at the White House of George Herbert Walker Bush. Read the full biography.
Doug Wead writes in USA Today about George W. Bush, the unique son of a president.
Read a Time magazine account of how Doug Wead's study or presidential families began.
Read the Today Show transcript, Doug Wead talks with Matt Lauer about presidential children.
"Doug Wead is one of the most inspiring speakers, teachers, thinkers and writers of all time! I grow every time I hear him."
Mark Victor Hansen - Author, Chicken Soup for the Soul