Doesn’t get a single intelligence briefing, doesn’t meet a single world leader, isn’t briefed on the new patent project. “In 82 days as vice president,” he says of Harry Truman, “he only meets FDR twice. Others, though, Cohen holds up as examples of leaders who triumphed over the odds and more than rose to meet the demands of their new positions. Arthur, who spent more time redecorating the White House than he did governing. There was Andrew Johnson, whose biggest claim to fame as Abraham Lincoln’s second-in-command was getting so drunk at Lincoln’s second inaugural that, says Cohen, “he slobbered all over the ceremonial Bible,” or Chester A. As a child, Cohen was captivated by American history, and as an adult, his focus narrowed to the eight vice presidents who ascended to the top spot after assassinations and illnesses claimed the men elected to the job.įar from being fated, according to Cohen, the rise of men like John Tyler (vice president to William Henry Harrison), Theodore Roosevelt (who became president after the assassination of William McKinley), and Harry Truman (successor to Franklin Delano Roosevelt) could have been cataclysmic for the nation, and it’s clear not all of the accidental presidents on Cohen’s list were cut out for the job. Cohen, along with MSNBC political analyst Elise Jordan, was there to discuss Accidental Presidents: Eight Men Who Changed America, a book he’s been waiting to write his whole life. “It’s about dead presidents,” Cohen laughed at WeWork 500 7th Ave in New York City.

His new book, as it turns out, is a little different. It’s a natural assumption-Cohen, founder and CEO of Jigsaw (a technology incubator created by Google), worked in the office of Condoleeza Rice as one of the youngest foreign-policy planners in American history served as chief adviser to Google’s Eric Schmidt and is a New York Times bestselling author, having written two books on the intersection of technology and foreign policy.

“When I told people I had a new book, they said, “Is it about cyber wars or foreign policy?” says Jared Cohen.

Accidental Presidents by Jared Cohen