Make no mistake: Our founding fathers were more bandanas-and-muscles than powdered-wigs-and-tea. As a prisoner of war, Andrew Jackson walked several miles barefoot across state lines while suffering from smallpox and a serious head wound received when he refused to polish the boots of the soldiers who had taken him captive. He was thirteen years old. A few decades later, he became the first popularly elected president and served the nation, pausing briefly only to beat a would-be assassin with a cane to within an inch of his life. Theodore Roosevelt had asthma, was blind in one eye, survived multiple gunshot wounds, had only one regret (that there were no wars to fight under his presidency), and was the first U.S. president to win the Medal of Honor, which he did after he died. Faced with the choice, George Washington actually preferred the sound of bullets whizzing by his head in battle over the sound of silence. And now these men—these hallowed leaders of the free world—want to kick your ass. Plenty of historians can tell you which president had the most effective economic strategies, and which president helped shape our current political parties, but can any of them tell you what to do if you encounter Chester A. Arthur in a bare-knuckled boxing fight? This book will teach you how to be better, stronger, faster, and more deadly than the most powerful (and craziest) men in history. You’re welcome.

How to Fight Presidents: Defending Yourself Against the Badasses Who Ran This Country

Biographies & Memoirs

O’Brien, Daniel

Historical

Crown

Draft your own presidential fantasy team, based on these hilarious-but-true profiles of our past leaders, in this fun and funny illustrated book perfect for fans of How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous and Kid Presidents! What if a zombie apocalypse or a robot uprising threatened the nation and you had the power to recruit some of the nation’s finest presidents to help save the day? By studying the most successful squads in history, Daniel O’Brien has identified the perfect ingredients for a victorious team. Which president would you choose for: the Brain, the Brawn, the Moral Compass, the Loose Cannon, and the Roosevelt? Choose wisely—the fate of the world is in your hands! "Aiming squarely at a sports-obsessed, statistics-mad and gross-out friendly audience, the madcap, utterly irreverent Your Presidential Fantasy Dream Team may be on to something." —New York Times "O'Brien takes a non-holds-barred approach to describing each man's strengths, weaknesses, and reputation . . . Rowntree's over-the-top illustrations picture ratchet up the humor even more." —PW "A warts-and-all look at two centuries of presidential leadership and politics." —Kirkus Reviews

Your Presidential Fantasy Dream Team

Children's Books

Biographies

Listening Library (Audio)

Crown Books for Young Readers

Draft your own presidential fantasy team, based on these hilarious-but-true profiles of our past leaders, in this fun and funny illustrated book perfect for fans of How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous and Kid Presidents! What if a zombie apocalypse or a robot uprising threatened the nation and you had the power to recruit some of the nation’s finest presidents to help save the day? By studying the most successful squads in history, Daniel O’Brien has identified the perfect ingredients for a victorious team. Which president would you choose for: the Brain, the Brawn, the Moral Compass, the Loose Cannon, and the Roosevelt? Choose wisely—the fate of the world is in your hands! "Aiming squarely at a sports-obsessed, statistics-mad and gross-out friendly audience, the madcap, utterly irreverent Your Presidential Fantasy Dream Team may be on to something." —New York Times "O'Brien takes a non-holds-barred approach to describing each man's strengths, weaknesses, and reputation . . . Rowntree's over-the-top illustrations picture ratchet up the humor even more." —PW "A warts-and-all look at two centuries of presidential leadership and politics." —Kirkus Reviews

An in-depth study of the life of one of Hollywood's great leading men: actor, superstar, philanthropist, model husband, world-class racing driver, and authentic silver-screen icon - the man behind blue eyes. Paul Newman's best-known films, including "The Hustler", "Cool Hand Luke", "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", and "The Sting", are cherished both by movie lovers and within the wider culture. Daniel O'Brien now explores the lineage of Newman's life. His father did not approve of his son's acting ambitions, but Newman forged on regardless, graduated from New York's fabled Actors Studio, and made his name. He was startlingly handsome, but also bravely venturesome in his acting choices. He made a stunningly successful marriage with Joanne Woodward, but lost a son in tragic circumstances, and embraced political activism and good causes in later life. In the mid- 1980s, he enjoyed a remarkable double-Oscar-winning success, consolidating his status as one of the last and greatest living links between Hollywood's golden age and its post-studio-system era.

Paul Newman

Arts & Literature

Faber and Faber

Daniel O'Brien traces Eastwood's growth from the early years as a bit-player in Hollywood, the Rawhide years, international success in Sergio Leone's Dollars films, the key trio of movies with Don Siegel (Coogan's Bluff, The Beguiled, Dirty Harry), the first star/director productions (Play Misty for Me, High Plains Drifter) and the outstanding The Outlaw Josey Wales. Since achieving unchallenged superstar/director/producer status, Eastwood has shrewdly alternated popular vehicles such as Every Which Way but Loose or the Dirty Harry sequels with more personal projects (Escape from Alcatraz, Tightrope, Bird), culminating in the Oscar-winning success of The Unforgiven. O'Brien carries the story right up to The Bridges of Madison County, maintaining throughout his probing and stereotype-breaking view of Eastwood's film-making career.

Clint Eastwood: Film-Maker

B.T.BATSFORD LTD

On The Town...High Society...From Here to Eternity...The Man With The Golden Arm...Some Came Running...The Manchurian Candidate...Von Ryan's Express...The films of Frank Sinatra are startling in their diversity and sheer range. Musicals, comedies, thrillers, war films, intense dramas, sagas of small town America. In The Frank Sinatra Film Guide, Daniel O'Brien provides detailed information on all of Sinatra's movies, co-stars, collaborators and directors - and, naturally, full details on all the musical numbers from the films. As well as reassessing Sinatra's contribution to a wide variety of screen genres, O'Brien restates the case for Sinatra as a major and innovative film actor. A true film star, even if he had never sung a note.

The Frank Sinatra Film Guide

Few careers in Hollywood can match the highs and lows of Robert Altman's. In the past several years, The Player, and Short Cuts especially have seen the director - who has been written off time and again - emerge as a major creative force. (Critical reception of Ready to Wear, his latest film, also fits the pattern of Altman's career.) O'Brien explores the causes for Altman's rise and fall from critical acclaim, as well as the director's unconventional attitudes to the film-making process, which may have left him better equipped than many to adjust to the bitter realities of the Hollywood film industry. He is a true Hollywood survivor. Altman's comeback in the 1990s, and the accompanying reappraisal of his earlier work, is fully discussed and documented, right up to the present. By exploring a rich and varied career, this book reveals Robert Altman's unique position in American culture and world cinema.

Robert Altman: Hollywood Survivor

Continuum Intl Pub Group

One of the most talented and unique filmmakers of all time, Robert Altman -- with his preference for offbeat characters, experimental techniques, and improvisation -- has produced a succession of artistically outstanding films. From MASH to Popeye, Nashville to The Player, Altman is that rare Hollywood filmmaker who will not compromise his vision. In Robert Altman: Hollywood Survivor, Daniel O'Brien gives a concise overview of the entire career and examines the reasons for Altman's rise and fall from critical acclaim, concluding with the big comeback of the 1990s.

Chiron Pubns

In 1973, when Steven Spielberg's movie, Sugarland Express, was released, it was acclaimed by Pauline Kael as "One of the most phenomenal debut films in history." Spielberg was twenty-six. This book explores the Spielberg phenomenon within the context both of the films themselves - by examining their appeal, plots, stars, directorial style, and cinematic technique - as well as the popularity of this filmmaker's themes and subject matter. Combining biography with astute, in-depth (but never pretentious) film analysis, Philip Taylor looks at the inside story of Spielberg's rise to fame as the wunderkind the Hollywood establishment loves to hate. He examines Spielberg's formative filmmaking influences, including directors such as Francois Truffaut and David Lean; his early years in television; and the films he has produced and directed, with reference to the technical and commercial considerations surrounding them - including such blockbusters as Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the Indiana Jones films, E.T., and others. The text is illustrated with production shots and film stills, and a detailed filmography provides plot synopses for all of Spielberg's films, as producer and director, whether for film or TV. Our most commercially successful director for the last fifteen years, Steven Spielberg is primarily an entertainer, and his films a medium for escapism in the best Hollywood tradition. His ability to create universal appeal is a rare talent but, surprisingly, one still hardly recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Steven Spielberg: The Man, His Movies, and Their Meaning

Humor & Entertainment

Taylor, Philip M.

Movies

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by O’Brien, Daniel. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by O’Brien, Daniel

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by O’Brien, Daniel. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

How to Fight Presidents: Defending Yourself Against the Badasses Who Ran This Country

Your Presidential Fantasy Dream Team

Your Presidential Fantasy Dream Team

Your Presidential Fantasy Dream Team

Paul Newman

Clint Eastwood: Film-Maker

The Frank Sinatra Film Guide

Robert Altman: Hollywood Survivor

Robert Altman: Hollywood Survivor

Steven Spielberg: The Man, His Movies, and Their Meaning