First Dads: Parenting and Politics from George Washington to Barack Obama

On June 2 , 2016, Joshua Kendall delivered a Banner Lecture entitled "First Dads: Parenting and Politics from George Washington to Barack Obama." Every president has had some experience as a parent. Of the forty-three men who have served in the nation's highest office, thirty-eight have fathered biological children and the other five adopted children. Each president’s parenting style reveals much about his beliefs as well as his psychological make-up. James Garfield enjoyed jumping on the bed with his kids. FDR's children, on the other hand, had to make appointments to talk to him. Biographer Joshua Kendall will both describe the parenting practices of America's presidents and discuss how their experiences as fathers forever changed the course of American history. Joshua Kendall is author of several books, including The Man Who Made Lists, a life of the lexicographer Peter Mark Roget; America's Obsessives: The Compulsive Energy That Built a Nation, a group biography of seven icons, including Thomas Jefferson, Charles Lindbergh and Estee Lauder; and, most recently, First Dads: Parenting and Politics from George Washington to Barack Obama. An award-winning freelance journalist, he has written for numerous newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, The LA Times, The Boston Globe, Psychology Today and BusinessWeek. The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.