My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Harvard University Press for an advance copy of this history about a book, a presidency and two men who tried to get to heart of what went wrong.

To announce that one would be the perfect President of the United States, than travel the country trying to earn money and votes to make this statement seem true, seems a little mad. Or the actions of a grifter as has been proven in our last elections. Coming to the decision that only I could be the so-called leader of the free world, a free world that is coming more and more with limits, that I only I have the strength, the knowledge, the ability and the agility to get things done seems like textbook megalomania. And yet every two years people announce they are running for president, and try to convince others they have the right stuff. Or can grift well. Many books have been written about presidents, what they were thinking, feeling, how their pasts made them, how their actions defined them. Only one of these books featured a co-writer as well known as Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, along with a hurt and jaded American diplomat by the name of William C. Bullitt, who had his own issues. Political scientist Patrick Weil looks at the history of this book, and the events that shaped it in The Madman in the White House: Sigmund Freud, Ambassador Bullitt, and the Lost Psychobiography of Woodrow Wilson.

William C. Bullitt was a self-made man, with a particular set of ideas about family, the world and how leaders should act. Bullitt had travelled quite a bit, was known to many interesting and diverse people. Bullitt also had a thirst for power, and in the government of Woodrow Wilson, had thought that he had met a man who shared similar values. However following the end of the First World War, Bullitt was stunned at how badly Wilson seemed to be handling the peace. Picking fights with allies, getting emotional at times, declaring enemies with politicians he needed for their support, Bullitt left the administration in disgust. Bullitt further burned his bridges by testifying to the Senate about the many wrongs that he felt Wilson had committed. While traveling and having problems with his marriage, Bullitt went to the one person he thought could help in Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis whose friendship Bullitt gained. Bullitt approached Freud with a promising idea. Bullitt would do research on Wilson, talking to friends, family and political cronies, and together the two would write a psychobiography on Wilson, looking at what went wrong.

A different kind of history book, one that covers quite a lot of subject matters. The book is both a history of Europe after the First World War looking at the failures arising from the treaty of Versailles. A biography of Bullitt and Wilson, with a bit of Freud. Also a history on the book Thomas Woodrow Wilson: A Psychological Study, and the many controversies that followed the book's publication. For all the subjects the book covers, the narrative never drags nor seems to get lost. There is a lot of history, both on the people, but of the era. What helps is that the people under discussion are all interesting, Bullitt alone is one fascinating character, worth a pyschobiography of its own. There is a lot to take in, but Weil does a very good job of explaining everything and making the passages not only readable, but understandable.

As I stated a very different kind of history. One that might not be for everyone, but one that I found engaging and very informative. Recommended for both readers of history and of course psychology, as well as those who like to read the stories of people behind the scenes of great events.