Dead Presidents book

For American presidents, there is life after death—it’s just a little weird.

“The funniest and most entertaining book about death you’ll read this year—and my favorite book about corpses since Mary Roach’s Stiff.” — A. J. Jacobs

Brady Carlson’s DEAD PRESIDENTS explores the death stories of our nation’s leaders—and the wild ways we choose to remember and memorialize them.

Read an excerpt | Order DEAD PRESIDENTS: Gibson’s | Indiebound | Barnes & Noble | Amazon | Books-a-Million | Audible | Brady on Square

VISIT THE GRAVESITES:

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George Washington John Adams Thomas Jefferson James Madison James Monroe John Quincy Adams Andrew Jackson Martin Van Buren William Henry Harrison John Tyler James Polk Zachary Taylor Millard Fillmore Franklin Pierce James Buchanan Abraham Lincoln Andrew Johnson Ulysses Grant Rutherford Hayes James Garfield Chester Arthur Grover Cleveland Benjamin Harrison William McKinley Theodore Roosevelt William Taft Woodrow Wilson Warren Harding Calvin Coolidge Herbert Hoover Franklin Roosevelt Harry Truman Dwight Eisenhower John F Kennedy Lyndon Johnson Richard Nixon Gerald Ford Ronald Reagan George H.W. Bush

“A brisk, lighthearted travelogue with an exuberant guide.” – Kirkus Reviews

“A fascinating romp, and reflection, on the fate of the nation’s departed chief executives; humorous, insightful, and admirably well told.” — Philip Dray

“[An] amusing survey of presidential death and remembrance… The book blends wry humor with thought-provoking analysis.” – Boston Globe

“It’s the way Brady combines the weird and the wonderful that makes Dead Presidents both entertaining and truly interesting.” – BookConscious

“Dead presidents haven’t been this surprising, entertaining, and even funny since my eighth-grade classmates and I saw animatronic Lincoln whirr to life or, later, when I voted for failed San Francisco mayoral candidate Jello Biafra.” — Jack Hitt

“A lover of details regardless of how grotesque or quirky, Carlson leads a field trip to the resting places of both distinguished and obscure presidents, and gives some interesting death factoids along the way… Carlson’s book entertains and enlightens, and reminds readers that presidents are also human beings.” – Publisher’s Weekly

“Lots of books explain how tough the presidents have it when they are alive—scandals, impeachments, gray hair—but here at last is a terrific investigation of the post-life presidency, a rollicking but always thoughtful exploration of the after-the-White-House whereabouts of the forever former chief executives. Brady Carlson is the perfect road-trip companion, smart and good-hearted, a combination that we can only hope for in presidents, alive or dead.” — Robert Sullivan, author of My American Revolution

“In this entertaining biography-cum-travelogue… Carlson shifts deftly among sombre, macabre, and playful stories and shows how the death-tourism industry reveals more than amusing trivia about state funerals and legacy libraries.” – The New Yorker

“The funniest and most entertaining book about death you’ll read this year—and my favorite book about corpses since Mary Roach’s Stiff. Plus, I learned a ton about our commanders-in-chief, many of whose lives got much more interesting after they stopped breathing.” — A. J. Jacobs

“Thoroughly enjoyable.” – Booklist