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Audiobooks Narrated by Mark K. Updegrove
Browse audiobooks narrated by Mark K. Updegrove, listen to samples and when you're ready head over to Audiobooks.com where you can get 3 FREE audiobooks on us
The award-wining author of Second Acts and The Last Republicans draws on interviews and conversations with seven presidents to identify the essence of character, leadership and legacy that has defined each of them and the modern American presidency.
Throughout his career as an author, journalist, television commentator, and head of a presidential library and foundation, Mark Updegrove has had the privilege of getting to know seven U.S. Presidents, from Gerald Ford to Barack Obama. In Make Your Mark, he offers incisive, compelling sketches of these modern presidents and the character trait that made each suited to his moment in the Oval Office and underlies his most significant accomplishments.
Gerald Ford’s instinct to do the right thing in the wake of Watergate;
Jimmy Carter’s mission to do good in the areas of peace and human rights during his presidency and throughout his post-presidency;
Ronald Reagan’s optimism, restoring the nation’s confidence and pride after a sustained period of demoralizing national setbacks;
George H.W. Bush’s humility, helping to ensure a peaceful end to the Cold War that had seethed between the superpowers for over forty years;
Bill Clinton’s resilience and determination to keep working for the good of the American people in the face of political and personal obstacles;
George W. Bush’s charge to give back as the deadly AIDS epidemic spread unchecked throughout much of the developing world;
and Barack Obama’s grace as the first African American to hold the country’s highest office.
Make Your Mark reveals that there is no one-size-fits-all model for leadership. We all have our own set of strengths and weaknesses. But drawing on these presidential examples, we can ask ourselves how our character reflects our leadership, and be inspired to find the very best in who we are to make own unique marks as leaders.
Acclaimed author and historian Mark K. Updegrove, head of the LBJ Foundation and presidential historian for ABC News, offers an illuminating account of John F. Kennedy's brief but transformative tenure in the White House.
"Tremendously absorbing and inviting… An important book."-Doris Kearns Goodwin • "Elegant, concise, [and] knowing."-Michael Beschloss • "Rescues JFK from Camelot mythology."-Richard Norton Smith
Nearly sixty years after his death, JFK still holds an outsize place in the American imagination. While Baby Boomers remember his dazzling presence as president, millennials more likely know him from advertisements for Omega watches or Ray Ban sunglasses. Yet his years in office were marked by more than his style and elegance. His presidency is a story of a fledgling leader forced to meet unprecedented challenges, and to rise above missteps to lead his nation into a new and hopeful era.
Kennedy entered office inexperienced but alluring, his reputation more given by an enamored public than earned through achievement. In this gripping new assessment of his time in the Oval Office, Updegrove reveals how JFK's first months were marred by setbacks: the botched Bay of Pigs invasions, a disastrous summit with the Soviet premier, and a mismanaged approach to the Civil Rights movement. But the young president soon proved that behind the glamour was a leader of uncommon fortitude and vision.
A humbled Kennedy conceded his mistakes, and, importantly for our times, drew important lessons from his failures that he used to right wrongs and move forward undaunted. Indeed, Kennedy grew as president, radiating greater possibility as he coolly faced a steady stream of crises before his tragic end.
Incomparable Grace compellingly reexamines the dramatic, consequential White House years of a flawed but gifted leader too often defined by the Camelot myth that came after his untimely death.
