Baptism by fire

eight presidents who took office in times of crisis

de Mark K. Updegrove

Presidential historian Mark Updegrove looks at eight U.S. presidents who inherited unprecedented crises immediately upon assuming the reigns of power. **George Washington** led a fragile and fledgling nation while defining the very role of the presidency. When **Thomas Jefferson** entered the White House, he faced a nation bitterly divided by a two-party schism far more severe than anything encountered today. **John Tyler** stepped into the office of the presidency during the constitutional crisis left by the first death of a sitting president. **Abraham Lincoln** inherited a divided nation on the brink of war. **Franklin D. Roosevelt** sought to quell America’s fears during the depths of the Great Depression. His successor, **Harry S. Truman**, was sworn in as commander in chief at the close of World War II, and **John F. Kennedy** stepped into the increasingly heated atmosphere of the cold war. In the wake of Watergate, the first unelected president, **Gerald R. Ford**, aimed to end America’s “long national nightmare.”