Boom! This is Books & Biceps #359!

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Because I write the Books & Biceps newsletter every week to 26,000+ of my fellow sophisticated meatheads, I get asked for book recs in all kinds of niches, but one that pops up a lot around July 4th is the Revolutionary War and in particular, the founding fathers.

To answer that question directly, these are my five favorite biographies on the founding fathers:

Let’s begin with the authors:

Joseph J. Ellis and Richard Brookhiser are my literary version of ’03-’04 Manny and Big Papi when it comes to early U.S. history biographies.

They knock every single book out of the park on the subject. I’ve been reading about the American Revolution as a side-hobby ever since I got out of college. This is all the more amazing to me personally because while I was in college and high school, I don’t think I paid attention for 5 minutes during a US History class. I’d love to say that all of my teachers sucked and I was a budding US History major just dying to be found… but that’s not the case. I was lazy and uninterested in the subject when it was forced on me.

Either way, at some point around age 22 or 23 I found myself lacking in knowledge of most things beyond sports, movies, movies about sports, comic books, swimming, bench press and Seinfeld, so I undertook my own secondary education to catch up on books and subjects that I found interesting and important…that process is still ongoing today.

The first masters course at what I self-named FU (Finkel University) was U.S. History, particularly, the American Revolution, the founding fathers, and what the colonies were really like from the horrors of slavery all the way up to the ideals of the Bill of Rights.

I think at this point I’ve read every Ellis and Brookhiser creation. Ellis wrote several books that cover various aspects of the Revolution, like Revolutionary Summer and American Creation, both outstanding books, but since I’m focusing on singular biographies in this post, these two top the list.

His Excellency: George Washington by: Joseph J. Ellis

Washington was built by history to lead a revolution. He was tough. He was stoic. He was unbreakable. At times he was impossible to get a read on. He had a monumental temper that he fought his whole life to control. He cared about decorum and civility and liberty which stood in stark contrast to being a slaveowner. He was half a foot taller than most other men during his time. He was largely self-educated. He looked like a king but had no desire to be one. He had horses shot out from under him, plots launched against him and the entire British army after him… And yet… He won. Then at the peak of his powers he willingly walked away. This book explains it all – buy it here.

American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson

This book won the National Book Award and in my opinion is the best book on Jefferson ever written. Again, I don’t have a PhD in history and I don’t pretend to have one. I just like reading this stuff. The biggest takeaway I had from this book was that of all the founding fathers, except maybe Adams, Jefferson was the most self aware of the history he was creating with every decision he’d make and word he’d write. His obvious historical and moral blindspot was his reliance on slavery, his affair with Sally Hemmings and the overall manner in which he treated the subject (mostly unapologetic and awful). In terms of founding a country, however, sometimes it seemed like he was even doing things just to cover his butt for future generations, almost like he was taking literary selfies that he knew Americans would still want to look at hundreds of years later. Read it today – you’ll learn so much about one of the most complicated, brilliant, flawed men ever to make his mark on history.

NEVER FORGET: I wrote the ONLY book that ranks every single US President athletically. No politics. just sports.

For the first time in US History, every single president's athletic ability has been researched, reviewed and ranked by me.

Which president saved 77 lives as a lifeguard? Which one's lucky handball is still sitting in the Smithsonian over a century after he last played with it? Which president invented a sport? Or practiced jiu-jitsu three afternoons a week while in office? Or was an NCAA champion? The answers to these questions (in order: Reagan, Lincoln, Hoover, T. Roosevelt, Ford) don't even scratch the surface of the awesome athletic information covered in Jocks in Chief.

By combining his fitness and sportswriting backgrounds, Finkel takes a thorough, and often hilarious, look at the athletic resumes of every single Commander-in-Chief. From the good (George H.W. Bush played in the College World Series) to the bad (Donald Trump doesn’t believe in exercise) to the ugly (Calvin Coolidge regularly rode an electric horse in the White House).

In order to objectively rank each president, Finkel invented the White House Athlete Ranking (WH.A.R.), whichgives a score of 1 - 10 across five categories, with each president receiving a total score from 0 to 50. The higher the score, the higher the president ranks athletically compared to his fellow POTUS’s.

The WH.A.R. Categories Are:

Executive Power – Ranks a president’s overall physical strength.

Running Ability – Ranks a president’s physical fitness and cardio throughout their life (both before and after office).

Fit for Office – Ranks how fit a president stayed once in office.

Executive Experience – Ranks the athletic accomplishments of a president.

Mettle of Honor – Ranks a president’s athletic toughness and endurance.

It was even endorsed by the New York Post:

"Presidents aren't just the commander in chief - they're also athlete in chief... The Oval Office has a long history of being occupied by athletes. These sweaty pursuits are detailed in Jocks in Chief." - The New York Post

1) If you’re a dude over 40 and you’ve been looking for a new digital magazine that’s written for midlife men, by midlife men, on the topics that actually matter to us: family, fitness, fashion, finance, food & fun, then join 20K of us at Midlife Male. We have awesome cover stories on everyone from Laird Hamilton and Troy Aikman to CEOs, athletes and tremendous entrepreneurs living fulfilling lives.

This week I wrote a column “16 Reasons Summer in the ‘80s and ‘90s Crushes Summer in 2025 and Why Our Kids Are Soft”. Read it here:

2) HERE ARE 5 MORE SPORTS BOOK RECS

In last week’s issue I made a comment that there weren’t that many good sports books to read anymore and my man Brendan jumped in to let me know that he’d recently read a bunch that we would all like. Love it. Sophisticated Meatheads helping out Sophisticated Meatheads.

Here’s what he wrote:

“There definitely are some really good sports books out this year - just the good ones haven't crossed over to mainstream success!  Here are 5:

Brendan writes his own newsletter called All Sports Book Reviews and it’s excellent.

You should subscribe here!

The design is so great. If you want to get yours early, before I even send out the email announcing it, I’m sharing the link here. One card. Access to every existing Meathead Media digital book, course and resource and all future offerings.

Grab a pre-launch Membership Number and be one of the 1st to get your card!

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