Ambition, Pragmatism, and Party

Within eight turbulent months in 1974 Gerald Ford went from the United States House of Representatives, where he was the minority leader, to the White House as the countrys first and only unelected president. His unprecedented rise to power, after Richard Nixons equally unprecedented fall, has garnered the lions share of scholarly attention devoted to Americas thirty-eighth president. But Gerald Fords (19132006) life and career in and out of Washington spanned nearly the entire twentieth century. Ambition, Pragmatism, and Party captures for the first time the full scope of Fords long and remarkable political life. The man who emerges from these pages is keenly ambitious, determined to climb the political ladder in Washington, and loyal to his party but not a political ideologue. Drawing on interviews with family and congressional and administrative officials, presidential historian Scott Kaufman traces Fords path from a Depression-era childhood through service in World War II to entry into Congress shortly after the Cold War began. He delves deeply into the workings of Congress and legislativeexecutive relations, offering insight into Fords role as the House minority leader in a time of conservative insurgency in the Republican Party. Kaufmans account of the Ford presidency provides a new perspective on how human rights figured in the making of U.S. foreign policy in the Cold War era, and how environmental issues figured in the making of domestic policy. It also presents a close look at the 1976 presidential electionemphasizing the significance of image in that contestand extensive coverage of Fords post-presidency. In sum, Ambition, Pragmatism, and Party is the most comprehensive political biography of Gerald Ford and will become the definitive resource on the thirty-eighth president of the United States.