The Preacher and the Presidents

Description

Spanning nearly 50 years, THE PREACHER AND THE PRESIDENTS traces the dance between the century's dominant religious figure and 11 presidents, from Harry Truman, who invited Graham to the White House when the preacher was just 31 years old, to George W. Bush. No one man or woman has ever been in a position to see the presidents, and the presidency, so intimately, over so many years. They called him in for photo ops. They called for comfort. They asked about death and salvation; about sin, and forgiveness. They asked about how the world would end. Eisenhower on his deathbed asked Graham for help in reconciling with Nixon, whose daughter was about to marry his grandson. Lyndon Johnson wrestled with Vietnam on his knees, with Graham beside him. Just before Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon, he tracked Graham down to talk it through. Bill Clinton turned to him after Oklahoma City, George W. Bush after 9/11. At a time when the nation is increasingly split over the place of religion in public life, THE PREACHER AND THE PRESIDENTS reveals how the world's most powerful men and the world's most famous evangelist knit faith and politics together for the last five decades--and why they are likely to remain indivisible for years to come.

Nancy Gibbs was named a senior editor of Time (R) in October 1991, chief political writer in 1996, and Editor-at-Large in 2002. After moving to the Nation section, Gibbs wrote more than 20 cover stories on the 1996 and 2000 presidential campaigns, and in 1998, helped lead Time's coverage of the impeachment drama. Michael Duffy, most recently Time's Washington Bureau chief, has been at the centre of the magazine's coverage of politics and presidents for ten years. Duffy spent six years covering both the Bush and Clinton White House for Time and in 1995 won the Gerald R. Ford Award for Distinguished Reporting on the Presidency.