Presidents and Place

Thomas J. Cobb is lecturer in International Relations at Coventry University.Olga Akroyd is honorary researcher at University of Kent.

• Chapter One - Gotham Remembers: New York Presidential Commemoration from the Confederation Congress Through the Virginia DynastyKeith J. Muchowski Chapter Two - “A Land of Pharaoh and His Plagues”: John Randolph of Roanoke’s Mission to Russia and the Jacksonian PresidencyOlga Akroyd Chapter Three - “Just Folks?”: Jack Downing, The West Wing, and the Yankee Struggle for “Real America”Jeff SmithChapter Four - William Henry Harrison and the Making of the Politically Imagined American MidwestWesley BishopChapter Five - Andrew Johnson: Reassessing the Political Impact of the Tailor from TennesseeFrederick David GordonChapter Six - A President’s ‘Pilgrimage of the Heart’: Place, Ancestry, and Woodrow Wilson’s 1918 Visit to Carlisle Sam EdwardsChapter Seven - “Dear Mr. President: Herbert Hoover & Harry Truman’s Unique Friendship, 1945-1964”Lisa Payne OssianChapter Eight - “JFK in Dallas: Collective Memory, Media Events, and Don DeLillo’s Libra”Laura Álvarez Trigo Chapter Nine - How Ba

From the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters, Thomas Cobb and Olga Akroyd and a cast of contributors consider the places that shaped presidents and other key figures in American history. These compelling essays remind us that historical settings are more than a backdrop.