In office less than half a year, President George Washington undertook an arduous month-long tour of New England to promote his new government and to dispel fears of monarchy. More than two hundred years later, American presidents still regularly traverse the country to advance their political goals and demonstrate their connection to the people.

In this first book-length study of the history of presidential travel, Richard Ellis explores how travel has reflected and shaped the changing relationship between American presidents and the American people. Tracing the evolution of the president from First Citizen to First Celebrity, he spins a lively narrative that details what happens when our leaders hit the road to meet the people.

“Ellis has constructed a highly readable work that enlightens as well as entertains.”

—Choice

“Modern presidential travel presents a paradox: ‘The president today is more visible but less accessible, more recognizable but less reachable.’ . . . Ellis uses travel as a window through which to consider the development of the presidency itself. . . . A stimulating, extensively documented overview of an under-examined arena of presidential activity.”

—Political Science Quarterly

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“Historically rich with lively anecdotes, Ellis’s book is an immensely impressive, informative and important work.”

—History News Network

“Well-laced with lively anecdotes, this is a highly readable look at how presidents wanted to be seen and how Americans wanted to see them, and how travel defined it.”

—Chicago Tribune

“Provides an important look into an underexplored area of American political history and is overall a valuable addition to the collections of academic libraries.”

—Library Journal

“As entertaining as it is informative, Ellis’ book is a sprightly account that takes readers along on presidential jaunts through the years as our leaders press flesh and kiss babies, ride carriages and trains, plot strategies on board ships and planes, and try to connect with the citizens they represent.”

—Salem, (Oregon) Statesman Journal

“Succeeds not only as a history of presidential travel, but also as an inquiry into the complex relationship between American citizens and their chief executive. Original, insightful, and brimming with colorful detail.”

—Alan Schroeder, author of Celebrity-in-Chief

“A superb tour of presidential travel and its deeper meanings. Ellis finds a fresh way to see presidents, power, and the American people. The fascinating historical detail adds up to a sober reflection of lost republican ideals. Wise, lively, elegant, fun, and vexing.”

—James A. Morone, author of Hellfire Nation: The Politics of Sin in American History

“A fascinating and eminently readable work that provides a distinctive perspective on American social and political development.”

—Fred I. Greenstein, author of The Presidential Difference

“An indispensable guide to peripatetic presidents and the impact of their journeys on the nation’s highest office.”

—Lewis L. Gould, author of The Modern American Presidency

“With customary insight, thoroughness, and literary grace, Ellis reveals how the presidency has become ‘regal’ as seen through the prism of presidential travel.”

—Michael Nelson, editor of The American Presidency: Origins and Development

“Perceptive and provocative, this lively study of presidential ‘road trips’ provides a novel perspective on the two-century evolution of the office.”

—Bruce Miroff, author of The Liberals’ Moment: The McGovern Insurgency and the Identity Crisis of the Democratic Party

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Presidents, Ellis shows, have long placed travel at the service of politics: Rutherford "the Rover" Hayes visited thirty states and six territories and was the first president to reach the Pacific, while William Howard Taft logged an average of 30,000 rail miles a year. Unearthing previously untold stories of our peripatetic presidents, Ellis also reveals when the public started paying for presidential travel, why nineteenth-century presidents never left the country, and why earlier presidents—such as Andrew Jackson, once punched in the nose on a riverboat—journeyed without protection.

Ellis marks the fine line between accessibility and safety, from John Quincy Adams skinny-dipping in the Potomac to George W. clearing brush in Crawford. Particularly important, Ellis notes, is the advent of air travel. While presidents now travel more widely, they have paradoxically become more remote from the people, as Air Force One flies over towns through which presidential trains once rumbled to rousing cheers. Designed to close the gap between president and people, travel now dramatizes the distance that separates the president from the people and reinforces the image of a regal presidency.

As entertaining as it is informative, Ellis's book is a sprightly account that takes readers along on presidential jaunts through the years as our leaders press flesh and kiss babies, ride carriages and trains, plot strategies on board ships and planes, and try to connect with the citizens they represent.