The first modern, authoritative biography of one of our most controversial Presidents, in which the author employs the perspectives of time and new documentation from the recently opened Harding papers. Mr. Sinclair penetrates the uniquely American myths that made Harding the object of adulation during his lifetime and of excoriation after his death. Indeed, as the author shows, the myths that went to make Warren G. Harding—and the Harding that went to make myths—provide parallel and caustic insights into the American Dream. How that dream was unmercifully exposed as a daydream when faced with the realities of the 20th-century presidency is the achievement of this work. "Sinclair's main point is that Harding could not have been quite the helpless idiot we take him for, and I think he argues it with some success."—RICHARD HOFSTADTER, New York Review of Books "Focusing his attention upon the myths surrounding Harding, he has swept away those obscuring a clear view of the subject, and has emphasized others that helped Harding to the presidency....A balanced verdict." —FRANK FREIDEL, New York Times "Mr. Sincair offers deep and challenging insights and lively style, which make every page engrossing reading." —Saturday Review "Sinclair's concern is not merely to establish new facts, but to reinterpret old ones. His method, a rewarding one, is to concentrate entirely on Harding as a political animal....In the hands of a detached, witty but never gratuitously unkind biographer, this method creates a character study of paramount interest..." —Washington Post ANDREW SINCLAIR was born in Oxford, England, and studied at Eton and at Trinity College, Cambridge. His books include Prohibition: The Era of Excess and The Better Half: The Emancipation of the American Woman, as well as four novels...