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

I read this paperback book in library of University of Helsinki (a ideal place with so many academic books on social sciences). Quite an awesome time sitting there contemplating lives of many US presidents, events in history, in a meditative atmosphere and with exaggeration, state of the art facility. I can not imagine this book in the form of audiobook since there are a lot to be seen with the eyes.

There are two great things i witness from this book:

- The critical attitude of two researchers (authors) when using quantitative tools to examine something hard to measure, i.e personlity. A large chunk of it is dedicated to explain how they use the survey, tools and possible biases when examine hearsay, historical account, professional biographers... I have numerous occasions for fun thought experiement with NEO Facets measures of personality.

- The brief biographies of over 20 US presidents, thier visions, deeds and aftermath. A general read makes it a good introduction. The book divides (not all) presidents into 8 categories, a president can be in several category. There are section for exceptional presidents who do not fit any in particular category.
(1) Dominators: Nixon, Johnson - Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt, Andrew Johson, Polk, Arthur;
(2) Introverts: John Adams and his son J.Quincy Adams - Nixon, Hoover, Coolidge, Wilson;
(3) The good guys: Hayes, Eisenhower, Ford, Washington, Cleveland
(4) The innocents: Harding, Grant, Taft
(5) The Actors: Reagan, Harding, Clinton, Pierce
(6) Maintainers: Mckinley, G.H.W Bush, Ford, Truman
(7) The philosophes: Garfield, Lincoln, Jefferson, Madison, Carter, Hayes
(8) The Extraverts: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Rooseveltand , Kennedy, Clinton, Reagan, Harding, Lyndon B. Johnson

There are Washington, Lincoln and Kennedy in the list of outliers. Very interesting to know which trait makes good presidents, which is nessecary for politics and how diverse is the personality pool of presidents.