I picked this up to get a better understanding of U.S. history and politics, and I was also hoping for interesting anecdotes. While there were a lot of cold hard facts about dates and laws and firsts and wars, the anecdotes and little details that help you see our presidents as real people were few and far between.

I was also annoyed by what I see as a major omission. There is no mention of the one day gap between Presidents Polk and Taylor, which caused all sorts of confusion about whether or not David Rice Atchison was president for a day. I mean, c’mon- that at least deserved a sidebar.