Throughout American history, Presidents and Presidential candidates have faced assassination threats and attempts on their lives. Historian Ronald L. Feinman discusses sixteen Presidents, as well as three important candidates, and how they were directly threatened with assassination -- six being killed, three wounded, and ten unhurt. Additionally, he reveals information about some failed attempts, which, had they been successful, could have resulted in fifteen different men who would have become President of the United States. Which ones would have been able to fill the responsibilities? Which ones would have been disastrous in the Oval Office? The problem of Presidential security, safety, and protection remains a serious problem today. The Secret Service and FBI employ all kinds of technological methods to protect our Chief Executive and his family, as well as other top officials in the line of succession. Feinman brings to light how these agencies have grown, both technologically and physically, to counter these attacks. He also sheds light on how these threats to our Presidency have devastated, changed, and grown our United States into what it is today.

Andrew Jackson at the U.S. Capitol -- Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre -- James A. Garfield at the D.C. Railroad Station -- William McKinley at the Buffalo Pan-American exposition -- Theodore Roosevelt at the Milwaukee Gilpatrick Hotel -- Franklin D. Roosevelt at Miami Bayfront Park -- Huey P. Long at the Louisiana State Capitol -- Harry S. Truman at Blair House -- John F. Kennedy at Dealey Plaza -- Robert F. Kennedy at the Los Angeles Ambassador Hotel -- George C. Wallace at Laurel, Maryland Shopping Center -- Richard M. Nixon and the Baltimore Airport incident -- Gerald R. Ford at Sacramento and San Francisco -- Ronald Reagan at the Washington Hilton Hotel -- Late Twentieth-Century presidents and assassination threats -- Twenty-first- Century presidents and assassination threats -- Fifteen "might have been" presidents in history.