Recent Books by Presidential Candidates

Book Review: Recent Books by Presidential Candidates 

Author: Multiple Candidates

Intent/Focus: A snapshot collage of several recent publications from 2016 presidential candidates

What You Will Learn: Inside information on the lives and views of seven presidential candidates

Why We Recommend It: This post is unusual in that we are not recommending (or rejecting!) any of these books. Our goal is simply to provide a relevant educators’ resource for the upcoming presidential race.

Summary:
If you, like many Americans, are curious about the wide field of 2016 presidential candidates, their background, life lessons, and ideas for America’s future, you may want to pick up one or more of these books. Here we provide seven “nutshell summaries” of books from candidates on both sides of the aisle: Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Hillary Clinton, Lawrence Lessig, Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump and Bobby Jindal.

Ted Cruz: A Time for Truth: Reigniting the Promise of America

Marco Rubio: American Dreams: Restoring Economic Opportunity for Everyone

Hillary Clinton: Hard Choices

Lawrence Lessig: Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress – and a Plan to Stop It

Bernie Sanders: Outsider in the White House

Donald Trump: Time to Get Tough: Make America Great Again!

Bobby Jindal: Leadership and Crisis 

Ted Cruz: A Time for Truth: Reigniting the Promise of America
June 2015
Hardcover: 400 pages

A Time for Truth gives us a look at the Cuban immigrant's son who made it to the Ivy League, the Supreme Court bar, and eventually to the U.S. Senate (Texas). The book also describes the backroom deals between Congressmen and the lobbyists who keep them in office – instead of keeping them accountable. While Cruz paints a discouraging picture of Washington politics, he also optimistically builds a plan for reestablishing the principles of America’s founders.

Reviewer comments:
“A Time for Truth is sharp, funny and honest… What Cruz reveals will win him few friends in Washington. Then again, that isn't why he went there in the first place.”

Marco Rubio: American Dreams: Restoring Economic Opportunity for Everyone
October 2015 
Paperback: 256 pages

Florida Senator Marco Rubio has already produced a bestseller with his first book, An American Son. With this latest publication, Rubio promotes “the values and can-do spirit that made our country exceptional.” He describes American Dreams as “a roadmap for [inspiring] Americans to reclaim their rights: to dream, to work, to build a better life for their children.”

Reviewer comments:
“Fresh ideas to solving key problems within our nation. …. I recommend this book to anyone who is a critical thinker, regardless of your political persuasion.”

Hillary Clinton: Hard Choices
April 2015
Paperback: 560 pages

“Hard Choices is a richly detailed and compelling chronicle of Clinton’s role in the foreign initiatives and crises that defined the first term of the Obama administration – the pivot to Asia, the Afghanistan surge of 2009, the ‘reset’ with Russia, the Arab Spring, the ‘wicked problem’ of Syria...” (Los Angeles Times)

Secretary of State Clinton and President Obama grappled with tough dilemmas as they tackled two wars, fractured alliances, and a global financial crisis. By the end of her tenure, Secretary Clinton had gained a truly global perspective on the major trends reshaping today’s landscape.

Los Angeles Times:
“This memoir is a valuable account of Clinton's time as America's chief diplomat… a chronicle for students of history and politics.”

Lawrence Lessig: Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress – and a Plan to Stop It 
October 2012
Paperback: 416 pages

Today many Americans believe that money buys results in Congress and controls our legislature. In Republic Lost, Harvard professor and Democratic candidate Lawrence Lessig takes a look at how we arrived at this crisis, exploring the legal – and corrupt – system of campaign financing and corporate lobbying. The issues are discussed in laymen terms, using real-world analogies and real human stories.

New York Times:
"[Lessig] has remained committed to the least cynical path, a commitment increasingly rare, and one to be valued."

Bernie Sanders: Outsider in the White House
October 2015
Paperback: 368 pages

Bernie Sanders was elected to the U.S. Senate (Vermont) in 2006 after serving 16 years in the House of Representatives. He is the longest-serving independent member of Congress in American history. Outsider in the White House is Senator Sanders’s political autobiography, describing how, after cutting his teeth in the Civil Rights movement, he built a grassroots political movement that made him the first independent elected to the House in 40 years.

Reviewer Comments:
“A clear, compelling and comprehensive vision for reinvigorating democracy, reducing poverty, rebuilding the middle class and restructuring our health care and education systems. Sanders gives us a vision of the day when ‘we will no longer be outsiders in the House.’”

Donald Trump: Time to Get Tough: Make America Great Again! 
August 2015
Paperback: 256 pages

In the New York Times bestseller Time to Get Tough, Trump describes America as a broken country – stripped of jobs, stripped of wealth, stripped of respect. He blames the current administration. But he has a plan that includes answers for issues such as immigration, China, debt and U.S. health care.

Reviewer Comments:
“Trump is strong in his positioning and does not waste time getting to the point. He is ruthless in his accusations, supplying the Trump style entertainment we have come to expect. The issues he focuses on here are critical to the future of the American government but never addressed in Washington, or commentated on, for fear of political correctness.” 

Bobby Jindal: Leadership and Crisis 
November 15, 2010
Hardcover: 256 pages

Jindal is not your typical politician. The son of Indian immigrants, a Christian convert from Hinduism, and a Rhodes Scholar, Jindal presided over Louisiana’s healthcare system at age 24, headed the University of Louisiana system at 27, became a U.S. congressman at 33, and was elected governor of Louisiana at 36.

Filled with behind-the-scenes stories from the oil-slicked beaches of Louisiana to the corridors of power in the U.S. Capitol, Leadership and Crisis offers an insider’s view into one of the worst environmental disasters our nation has suffered – and into one of the most unique success stories in American politics.

National Review:
“Leadership and Crisis… tells compelling stories. Stories of government inefficiencies and tragedies, but stories of redemption and reform, too.”

Related Article: Book Review: You Have a Brain: A Teen's Guide to T.H.I.N.K. B.I.G. – by Ben Carson

Have you read any of these books? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

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