Baptism by fire

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.”