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Presidential Doodles: Two Centuries of Scribbles, Scratches, Squiggles & Scrawls from the Oval Office | 
 enlarge | Authors: Cabinet Magazine, David Greenberg
Publisher: Basic Books
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $5.39
You Save: $19.56 (78%)
New (4) Used (10) from $3.54
Avg. Customer Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 150669
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 176
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 8.1 x 0.7
Dewey Decimal Number: 741.2
ASIN: B000WCTRNW
Publication Date: October 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| • | Hardcover - Presidential Doodles: Two Centuries of Scribbles, Scratches, Squiggles, and Scrawls from the Oval Office squiggles & scrawls from the Oval Office | | • | Paperback - Presidential Doodles: Two Centuries of Scribbles, Scratches, Squiggles, and Scrawls from the Oval Office squiggles & scrawls from the Oval Office | | • | Paperback - Presidential Doodles: Two Centuries of Scribbles, Scratches, Squiggles, and Scrawls from the Oval Office squiggles & scrawls from the Oval Office | | • | Kindle Edition - Presidential Doodles: Two Centuries of Scribbles, Scratches, Squiggles, and Scrawls from the Oval Office squiggles & scrawls from the Oval Office |
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Product Description
What were the leaders of the free world really doing during all those meetings? As the creators of Cabinet magazine reveal here for the first time, they were doodling. Our Founding Fathers doodled, and so did Andrew Jackson. Benjamin Harrison accomplished almost nothing during his time in the White House, but he left behind some impressive doodles. During the twentieth century--as the federal bureaucracy grew and meetings got longer--the presidential doodle truly came into its own. Theodore Roosevelt doodled animals and children, while Dwight Eisenhower doodled weapons and self-portraits. FDR doodled gunboats, and JFK doodled sailboats. Ronald Reagan doodled cowboys and football players and lots of hearts for Nancy. The nation went wild for Herbert Hoover's doodles: A line of children's clothing was patterned on his geometric designs. The creators of Cabinet magazine have spent years scouring archives and libraries across America. They have unearthed hundreds of presidential doodles, and here they present the finest examples of the genre. Historian David Greenberg sets these images in context and explains what they reveal about the inner lives of our commanders in chief. Are Kennedy's dominoes merely squiggles, or do they reflect deeper anxieties about the Cold War? Why did LBJ and his cabinet spend so much time doodling caricatures of one another? Smart, revealing, and hilarious -- Presidential Doodles is the ideal gift for anyone interested in politics or history. And for anyone that doodles!
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
Scratching the surface and more January 21, 2008
This delightful little book take us into the offices and to some degree into the minds of that most exclusive of sets -- the American Presidents, from George Washington to George W. Bush. The book does this via the most innocuous of means: by examining the doodles and random notations that presidents have made while in presumably weighty meetings. The book's introduction describes the interest in presidential doodling and its meaning, if any. Starting in to the early 20th century of course, doodling became a major fascination of a nation wrapped up in pseudo-Freudian analysis. A doodle, like a dream or a slip of the tongue, was supposed to provide a glimpse of the soul. No wonder that some presidents chose not to provide samples for the book. Would a tossed-off scribble be seen as an indicator of fitness for office? How about the lack of doodles?
Through tedious searching through archives and presidential libraries, sometimes with the assistance of archivists, the authors have managed to obtain doodles -- or some other form of non-alphabetic expression -- from about half of the US presidents. Some, like Washington, either did not doodle, or found little time for it. His samples were taken from the inked boxes in his schoolboy exercise books that may have been a way to while away a dull lesson. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the relative cheapness of writing materials available to them, the most prolific doodlers were in the 20th century. FDR's doodles included ideas for stamps and government liquor labels, while JFK liked repeating words ad drawing his sloop Victura. Hoover (like his admirer Richard Nixon) preferred harsh geometric patterns. Johnson's doodles switched from disturbed and childish to hyper-controlled. Seemingly only Ronald Reagan doodled self-consciously, passing his signed doodles to admirers.
Though some of our most recent presidents -- Carter, Ford, Clinton and GW Bush -- did not provide samples, the book is fascinating. The doodles helped me imagine myself sitting in the Cabinet Room or Oval Office, watching as the President listened distractedly to presentations of import great and small. Whether to relax, focus or distract themselves (or even to stay awake) they inked notations onto whatever paper was available. Whether these doodles have any great significance is less relevant than their ability to transport us into the minds of leaders long gone.
 Presidential Doodles December 12, 2007
A perfect gift for someone who is interested in either doodling or U.S. Presidents (or both)! This book chronicles various US Presidents' doodles during their White House reign, giving insight into the politics surrounding the doodles (when possible), the situation and the President's personality. Something new for the coffee table.
 PRESIDENTIAL DOODLES David Greenberg December 2, 2007
A doodle is an "unconscious" drawing or etching made anywhere on anything while the "conscious" mind is concentrating on things elsewhere.
This book lists and illustrates an amazing collection of doodles made by USA Presidents before, during and after holding office often just prior or almost at decision time in their role in history.
For the layman they open up a completely new perspective on the man while for a practising graphologist like myself they reveal the real, inner man and their aims at that historic moment of time.
If you want to learn more about how a president's mind may have been working at various stages along the way get a copy of this book and you will cerainly learn more about the man.
Recommended.
a fun read October 17, 2007
A fun read that puts a person's face on the history we read so much about.
Nice gift book August 9, 2007
I gave this book to a friend interested in presidential history. Hard cover makes a nice gift. COntents are fun and interesting to read. Would recommend to others. A bit on the pricey side though...
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