Life After Power: Seven Presidents and Their Search for Purpose Beyond the White House

Life After Power examines what former U.S. presidents do after leaving office, exploring seven presidents from the Founding era to the present day. Each of these men shaped history and faced the question of how to spend the next chapter of their lives. The book follows Thomas Jefferson, who founded the University of Virginia and shaped public debates after his presidency; John Quincy Adams, who served in Congress and became a leading abolitionist; Grover Cleveland, the only president to serve nonconsecutive terms; William Howard Taft, who became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court; Herbert Hoover, who led relief efforts after World War II and reorganized the executive branch; Jimmy Carter, who had the longest post-presidency in American history and advanced humanitarian causes and peace; and George W. Bush, who made a clean break from politics. Cohen explores how these former presidents navigated ego, finances, questions about legacy and mortality, and ultimately made history after leaving the White House.