Personality, Character, and Leadership In The White House: Psychologists Assess the Presidents

Personality, Character, and Leadership in the White House is the first book-length work to present truly scientific personality evaluations of the American presidents. This benchmark work dramatically improves the state-of-the-art in classifying presidents and predicting performance in the White House. Dr. Steven Rubenzer and Dr. Thomas Faschingbauer asked 120 experts, including biographers, historians, presidential advisers, and other knowledge-able sources, to rate the presidents by filling out standardized personality tests. For each president that fell within their area of expertise, the evaluators completed a 592-item questionnaire regarding personality, intelligence, and behavior. From the results, the authors identify nine traits related to presidential success, examine how the presidents’ personalities affected their job performance, and list their scores on the major dimensions of personality. Rubenzer and Faschingbauer provide revealing insights about every American president and profile twenty-one of them in detail, including all post–World War II presidents and all of the “great” presidents. In addition to revolutionizing the way we look at the presidency, the study offers entertaining and unexpected conclusions. For instance, which recent president’s personality and character most closely resembles those of Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln? The answer may surprise you. Presidential scholars, students, and anyone who likes to be well informed when discussing their political preferences will find this enlightening book irresistible. Visit www.testingthepresidents.com and www.PersonalityinHistory.com for more information.

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