In the words of America's leaders

RECENTLY I PICKED Kamala Harris' new book, "107 Days," marking her short run-up to the 2024 presidential election.

- MASSOUD AMIN GUEST CONTRIBUTOR

DAVID HUME KENNERLY Getty Images

DURING MOMENTS of national crisis, presidents from both parties have stepped forward to lead with clarity and resolve.

And as with every tome written by a national leader who steps off the stage, I set out to read it closely. For nearly 40 years, I've done this without fail, across parties and generations, because such books are more than personal accounts. They are examinations of leadership under pressure. They reveal what individuals choose to emphasize, what they prefer to leave unsaid and how they hope to be remembered.

Over the last four decades, these memoirs have taken many forms. Jimmy Carter's "Keeping Faith" (1982) is honest, sincere, intelligent, humorless and impersonal, yet radiates the quiet joy he found in governing. In mediating the Camp David Accords, Carter recounts his tenacity at the negotiating table and his belief that persistent dialogue could bridge irreconcilable divides.

Ronald Reagan's "An American Life" (1990), composed from personal diaries, is a work of major historical importance, praised as "honest, hopeful and compellingly readable." Taking readers behind the scenes of his life and leadership, Reagan's optimism and faith in America's ability to renew itself saturate the pages.

For "All the Best, George Bush" (1999) the 41st president crafted an intimate and revealing book from his collection of letters that spans his life from an 18-year-old Navy pilot to his days in the Oval Office. The letters show his "heartbeat" and his candid thoughts on public service. Reading them, one senses a man who saw service as duty and found meaning in the bonds he forged along the way.