Treasury of Great American Scandals : Tantalizing True Tales of Historic Misbehavior by the Founding

Following on the heels of his national bestseller A Treasury of Royal Scandals, Michael Farquhar turns his attention to matters a little closer to home with A Treasury of Great American Scandals. From the unhappy family relationships of prominent Americans to the feuds, smear campaigns, duels, and infamous sex scandals that have punctuated our history, we see our founding fathers and other American heroes in the course of their all-too-human events. Ineffectual presidents, lazy generals, traitors; treacherous fathers, nagging mothers, ungrateful children, embarrassing siblings; and stories about insanity, death, and disturbing postmortems are all here, as are disagreeable marriages, vile habits, and, of course, sex: good sex, bad sex, and good-bad sex too. We can take comfort in the fact that we are no worse and no better than our forebears. But we do have better media coverage. Bonus educational material: * A brief history of the United States, including scandals! * The American Hall of Shame! * A complete listing of presidential administrations!

Michael Farquhar is the author of A Treasury of Royal Scandals. As a writer and editor at the Washington Post, he specializes in history. His work has also appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Dallas Morning News, Reader's Digest, and Newsday, as well as on Discovery Online.