This first history of the private relationships among modern American presidents-their backroom deals, rescue missions, secret alliances, and enduring rivalries. The Presidents Club, established at Dwight Eisenhower's inauguration by Harry Truman and Herbert Hoover, is a complicated place: its members are bound forever by the experience of the Oval Office and yet are eternal rivals for history's favor. Among their secrets: how Jack Kennedy tried Ike for the Bay of Pigs. How Ike quietly helped Reagan win his first race in 1966. How Richard Nixon conspired with Lyndon Johnson to get elected and then betrayed him. How Jerry Ford and Jimmy Carter turned a deep enmity into an alliance. The letter from Nixon that Bill Clinton rereads every year. The unspoken pact between a father and son named Bush. And the roots of the rivalry between Clinton and Barack Obama. Journalists and presidential historians Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy offer a new tool to understand the presidency by exploring the club as a hidden instrument of power that has changed the course of history.

Truman and Hoover: the return of the exile. "I'm not big enough for this job" ; "Our exclusive trade union" --Eisenhower and Truman: careful courtship, bitter breakup. "The news hounds are trying to drive a wedge between us" ; "The man is a congenital liar" -- Kennedy and his club: the hazing. "He had no idea of the complexity of the job" ; "The worse I do, the more popular I get" ; "How about coming in for a drink?" -- Johnson and Eisenhower: blood brothers. "The country is far more important than any of us" ; "I need your counsel, and I love you" -- Nixon and Reagan: the California boys. "You'll have my promise -- I'll speak no evil" -- Johnson and Nixon: two scorpions in a bottle. "This is treason" ; "I want to go; God take me" -- Nixon and Johnson: brotherhood and blackmail. "I want the break-in" -- Nixon and Ford: mercy at all costs. "I had to get the monkey off my back" -- Ford and Reagan: the family feud. "It burned the hell out of me" -- Nixon, Ford, and Carter: three men and a funeral. "Why don't we make it just Dick, Jimmy, and Jerry?" -- Reagan and Nixon: the exile returns. "I am yours to command" -- Bush and Nixon: no good deed goes unpunished. "I'm convinced -- he feels I'm soft" -- Bush and Carter: the missionary goes rogue. "I am a better ex-president that I was a president" -- Six presidents: the golden age of the club. "The guy knows how the game is played" ; "I'm sending Carter. You think it will be OK, don't you?" ; "Bill, I think you have to admit that you lied" -- Bush and Clinton: the rascal and the rebel. "He's never forgiven me for beating his father" -- Bush and Bush: father and son. "I love you more than tongue can tell" ; "Tell 41 and 42 that 43 is hungry" -- Obama and his club: the learning curve. "We want you to succeed."