Rediscover: The Presidents Club

The end of Barack Obama's presidency marks his passage into one of the most exclusive and influential groups in domestic politics: living ex-presidents of the United States. Their relationships with sitting presidents have ranged from cordial and cooperative to less-than-helpful. The coming administration's ties with President Obama may fall on the antagonistic side of this spectrum although since the election, the two have been publicly cordial.

The Presidents Club: Inside the World's Most Exclusive Fraternity by Nancy Gibbs (managing editor for Time magazine) and Michael Duffy (Time's deputy managing editor) chronicles the history of ex-presidents and their sitting counterparts. The book runs from the Truman through Obama administrations, including the former's use of Herbert Hoover to deliver food to Europe after World War II and the latter's complicated ties with Bill Clinton (the book was published just before Obama's reelection). Clinton's bonds are surprising--he became close friends with George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, and had regular late-night phone conversations with Richard Nixon before his death in 1994. These stories of cooperation, advice and congeniality, sprinkled with some blame-gaming and conspiratorial maneuvering, seem now like high-water marks of modern presidential politics. The Presidents Club was released in paperback by Simon & Schuster in 2013 ($18, 9781439127728). --Tobias Mutter

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