Gerald R. Ford
Douglas Brinkley
Henry Holt and Co.
<p><b>The "accidental" president whose innate decency and steady hand restored the presidency after its greatest crisis</b></p><p><br> </p><p><br>When Gerald R. Ford entered the White House in August 1974, he inherited a presidency tarnished by the Watergate scandal, the economy was in a recession, the Vietnam War was drawing to a close, and he had taken office without having been elected. Most observers gave him little chance of success, especially after he pardoned Richard Nixon just a month into his presidency, an action that outraged many Americans, but which Ford thought was necessary to move the nation forward. </p><p><br></p><p><br>Many people today think of Ford as a man who stumbled a lot&#8212;clumsy on his feet and in politics&#8212;but acclaimed historian Douglas Brinkley shows him to be a man of independent thought and conscience, who never allowed party loyalty to prevail over his sense of right and wrong. As a young congressman, he stood up to the isolationists in...</br></br></br></br></p>