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The article discusses how the March 30, 1981 assassination attempt on U.S. President Ronald Reagan impacted his presidency. It mentions the decision by first lady Nancy Reagan to consult astrologer Joan Quigley to help set the daily itinerary of the President. It also considers how public perceptions of Reagan changed after his recovery from a gunshot wound which allowed him to pass large-scale tax cuts and initiate diplomatic negotiations with Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev to dismantle nuclear arsenals. INSET: An Impassioned Call for a Cease-Fire.

The article explores the leadership of U.S. president Abraham Lincoln during the end of the U.S. Civil War. Emphasis is given to topics such as the military success of General William Tecumseh Sherman, Lincoln's delivery of his second inaugural address, and reactions to Lincoln's assassination in the U.S. South.

This article focuses on the political battles of early American presidents. John Quincy Adams had seen this day coming for years. His father, John Adams, and most of the other founders had feared that republicanism would degenerate into democracy: that government of the people would become government by the people. But it was a losing cause. A first setback occurred when Thomas Jefferson defeated John Adams for president. Jefferson cast himself as the tribune of the people, and he carried the day. On the morning of March 4, 1829 John Quincy Adams prepared to deliver the presidency to the man the people, in all their ignorant majesty, had chosen: Andrew Jackson. Everything Adams deplored about the direction of American politics, Jackson applauded.

The article reports that U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt was an unlikely navalist. If Theodore Roosevelt's father had fought in the Civil War, the boy might have become an Army man. It was during Roosevelt's stint at the Navy Department that he gave a speech at the Naval War College that came to be considered his paean to war. And then, having done more than anyone else to precipitate the war, and having prepared the Navy to fight, Roosevelt abruptly resigned his post at the Navy Department as soon as the war began, to volunteer for cavalry service in Cuba.

The article argues that in revering the Founding Fathers, Americans downplay their own capacity for accomplishment and complicate any attempts to improve their republic. The article discusses the political rivalries of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Alexander Hamilton. Reverence for the Founders in various periods are highlighted and criticized.