"Our long national nightmare is over." - Gerald Ford, August 9, 1974~~~Gerald Ford is the only person in American history to reach the vice presidency and the presidency without being elected to either. Despite this, he was a popular president - for 1 month. But then he pardoned Nixon, and it was all downhill from there. Follow along as Ford rides his athletic gifts from Grand Rapids to The University of Michigan and eventually Yale, serves his country in World War 2, then embarks on a quest to become Speaker of the House, only to discover the presidency instead. Once there, he'll grapple with the legacy of Watergate, and a bedeviling rise in unemployment and inflation that threatened to send the country's economy over the cliff.Bibliography1. Gerald Ford – Douglas Brinkley2. Richard Nixon: The Life – John Farrell3. Ronald Reagan: The life – H.W. Brands4. The Vietnam War – Ken Burns (documentary)5. Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush – Jon Meacham6. Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream – Doris Kearns Goodwin7. Indomitable Will: LBJ in the Presidency – Mark K Updegrove

Support the show