As the title of my book indicates, this is a work that ranks America's Best Presidents. Prior to determining the rankings, I read 98 books about Presidents, Generals, Cabinet Officers, and general histories dealing with America. Over 44,600 pages were read--an average of 455 pages per book! After conducting additional research, the top 22 Presidents were determined, and the chapters were written from first to 22nd.
In the book's preface the reader will find the criteria that were used to establish the rankings, as well as a statement of my objectivity in determining the rankings. In each chapter, the reader will find the individual President's many accomplishments, occasional mistakes in judgment, character flaws (if any), and scandals (if any).
The reader will also discover personal information about the individual Presidents: their parents, the nature of their families: wealthy, poor, recent immigrants, etc. Also included is information regarding the accomplishments of the Presidents before, or in some cases after, their years as Commander in Chief. Lastly, the book contains four different, but intriguing, appendices. The most surprising of these is the fourth appendix--which deals with the lack of correlation between the Presidents' successes in college compared to their successes as President.
Bruce Myers Gilbert graduated from the UCLA School of Law, as well as the University of California @ Irvine, where he majored in History. He also earned a Secondary Teaching Credential in History at U.C.I. Choosing the Law as his career, he spent 34 years practicing in California; first as a criminal defense attorney, followed by 32 years as a criminal prosecutor--mostly as a Deputy D.A. He also spent 17 years covering sports for the Mariposa Gazette newspaper. He and his wife, Sharon, have been married for 46 years, and live in Mariposa County, near Yosemite National Park.
