The Strange Deaths of President Harding

By: Robert H. Ferrell

Narrated by: Fred Filbrich

Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

After Harding's untimely death in 1923, a variety of attacks and unsubstantiated claims left the public with a tainted impression of him.

Rumors circulated of the president's death by poison, either by his own hand or by that of his wife; allegations of an illegitimate daughter were made; and question were raised concerning the extent of Harding's knowledge of the Teapot Dome scandal and of irregularities in the Veterans' Bureau.

In The Strange Deaths of President Harding, Robert H. Ferrell lays out the facts behind these allegations for the listener to ponder. Ferrell shows that for years Harding suffered from high blood pressure, was under a great deal of stress, and overexerted himself; it was a heart attack that caused his death, not poison. There was no proof of an illegitimate child. And Harding did not know much about the scandals intensifying in the White House at the time of his death. In fact, these events were not as scandalous as they have since been made to seem.

In this meticulously researched and eminently listenable scrutiny of the mystery surrounding Harding's death, Ferrell asks for a reexamination of Harding's place in American history.

The book is published by University of Missouri Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.

©1996 The Curators of the University of Missouri (P)2022 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"A scrupulously researched and vividly told overview..." (American Spectator)

"This is a feisty, spirited, lively little book and, like the author's earlier ones, fun to read." (Illinois Historical Journal)

"A straightforward, well-written account of the final days and hours before Harding's fatal heart attack." (Booklist)