“There is an old saying, The harder you try the luckier you get. I kind of like that definition of luck.”
Gerald Ford served as the 38th President of the United States from 1974 to 1977, and it’s safe to say that he remains one of the more controversial leaders in American history. Only becoming vice president in December 1973, he was thrust into office following the resignation of Richard Nixon and immediately had to deal with one of the country’s most shocking scandals, as well as the worst economy since the Great Depression. Yet, his time in office is also arguably more nuanced than many credits. Sandwiched between the eras of Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon and the conservative heyday of Ronald Reagan, he represents a decisive turning point in Republican politics, the dividing lines of which are still reverberating across the US even today. If you’re looking to learn more about America’s 38th President, join us at What We Reading for the best Gerald Ford books!
Write It When I’m Gone: Remarkable Off-The-Record Conversations With Gerald R. Ford – Thomas M. DeFrank
We’re kicking off our list of the best Gerald Ford books with one of the most fascinating reads that truly illuminates the former US President as he really was. In 1974, Newsweek correspondent Thomas M. DeFrank was conducting an interview with Ford when the then-vice President blurted out something astonishing. He then plucked out a promise not to publish it, instructing DeFrank to ‘Write it when I’m dead’. Thus began a thirty-two-year-long friendship between the two men.
During the final fifteen years of his life, Ford confided in the award-winning journalist in a manner few leaders ever have. Write It When I’m Gone is a curation of all these private talks. Ford discusses his experiences with fellow Presidents, the Warren Commission, the Iraq War, wife Betty and his frustrations with ageing. The end result is not only a remarkable historical document but a candid portrait of a president.
An Ordinary Man: The Surprising Life And Historic Presidency Of Gerald R. Ford – Richard Norton Smith
For most Americans, Gerald Ford is seen as the accidental President. A man who saw Saigon finally fall pardoned his scandal-ridden predecessor and became the punching bag of Saturday Night Live. Yet, in his biography on Ford, An Ordinary Man, acclaimed presidential scholar Richard Norton Smith reveals an underrated leader whose tough decisions and integrity have both aged better with time.
Utilising hundreds of interviews and thousands of documents, Smith charts Ford’s hardscrabble childhood, his lifelong love affair with Betty Bloomer, and early anti-establishment politics to presiding over the biggest constitutional crisis since the American Civil War. First published in 2023 after a decade in the making, Richard Norton Smith’s work is one of the ultimate Gerald Ford books for challenging and changing most readers’ assumptions about America’s 38th President.
When The Center Held: Gerald Ford And The Rescue Of The American Presidency – Donald Rumsfeld
In the wake of Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal, it seemed as though the United States was threatening to split apart. After a decade of political assassinations, unprecedented resignations of both a vice president and president and sweeping, often intense, social and cultural change, an unelected, unexpected and largely unknown individual stepped in to take the reins.
At the end of his 895 days in office, Ford had steadied the ship and led Americans out of the trauma of Watergate. Yet, he remains one of the most overlooked and undervalued leaders in US history. In When the Center Held, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld shares his personal observations of the Ford, offering a complete picture of critical tenure in office. Featuring never-before-seen photos, memos and anecdotes, this peek-behind-the-curtain makes for a fascinating read for anyone interested in presidential history.
31 Days: Gerald Ford, The Nixon Pardon And A Government In Crisis – Barry Werth
In 31 Days, historian Barry Werth takes readers inside the White House during the tumultuous days of August 1974 following the resignation of Nixon and the crowning of the US’ ‘accidental president’, Gerald Ford. Watergate had ripped the country apart. Through day-by-day accounts, Werth shows how the 38th President and his administration grappled valiantly with their own moral compasses, political expedience and a nation’s demands for justice.
With deft analysis and insight, Werth showcases how this unprecedented political upheaval not only tarnished the country’s faith in its leaders but also how it paved the way for ambitious new forces such as Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney. 31 Days is one of the best books on Gerald Ford for shedding light on the key players and crucial dilemmas in-play during the wake of Watergate, that continue to reverberate even in today’s news headlines.
Taking Aim At The President: The Remarkable Story Of The Woman Who Shot At Gerald Ford – Geri Spieler
President Gerald Ford suffered two attempts on his life during his single term in office. One by a young woman in Charles Manson’s infamous family, Lynette ‘Squeaky’ Fromme. The other is from a far unlikelier candidate: a middle-aged mother of five, Sara Jane Moore. After three decades in contact with Moore, journalist Geri Spieler traces the life of this would-be assassin, from a small-town upbringing in West Virginia to the moment she nearly made Gerald Ford the fifth US president to be killed in office.
Throughout Moore’s dodgy life, she hid her identity and misled those around her. Set against the turbulent backdrop of the 1960s and 1970s, she married five times, abandoned her children, became a revolutionary, worked as an FBI informant, and turned double agent, all before she took a shot at the man in the Oval Office. Featuring correspondence with Moore, his own research and interviews with Gerald Ford himself, Taking Aim at the President is a remarkable character study of a society lady and of the Ford era itself.
The Election Of The Evangelical: Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford And The Presidential Contest Of 1976 – Daniel K. Williams
The Presidential Election of 1976 marked the end of Gerald Ford’s time in office, the beginning of Jimmy Carter’s, and one of the most significant turning points in polarising American political parties along ideological and cultural lines. Whilst Ford and Carter would enjoy a famous friendship in their years out of office, the resentment of losing the election initially hit the 38th President hard.
In The Election of the Evangelical, Daniel K. Williams uses untapped archives to illustrate the Carter, Ford and Reagan campaigns, as well as the lasting effects the election had on the nation’s politics. Examining the roles religion and ‘values voting’ had in the 1976 election, he dispels the most common myths about why Gerald Ford lost the election and examines what his defeat meant for the future of the Republican party.
Check Out The Best Books On US Presidential Elections
Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
