After George Washington, the first President of the USA, was inaugurated in 1789 in New York, he visited Columbia University, that college, where close to 130 years later the Pulitzer Prizes were established. Douglas S. Freeman, one of Washington`s biographers who earned the Pulitzer Prize, describes this remarkeble event. The book at hand also contains of 14 other U.S. presidents who initiated special projects or had to manage difficult situations during their time in office. So, for instance, chapters from other Pulitzer Prize-winning books show how Abraham Lincoln abolish slavery, how Woodrow Wilson developed his concept of the league of nations, how Franklin D. Roosevelt had to face the Pearl Harbour tragedy, or how John F. Kennedy handled the Berlin crisis.

Heinz-Dietrich Fischer, Ed.D., Ph.D., is professor emeritus at the Ruhr University of Bochum, Germany.