Harding Affair: Love and Espionage During the Great War

In the midst of his role as a pillar of political steadiness in a world staggering from economic and political instability, President Warren G. Harding was stuck in an unhappy and arid marriage to a woman five years his senior. It was then that he met Carrie Phillips, the love of his life and a supporter of Germany in WWI, and began a twelve-year torrid and politically complicated love affair.

Based on recently discovered correspondence, The Harding Affair will tell the unknown stories of the President's personal and political life, including his romance with Phillips, set against the dramatic backdrop of the Great War. James D. Robenalt's comprehensive new findings unfold into three rich and compelling narrative strands: the love story between Harding and Phillips; the uncovering of an investigation into Phillips and her family as possible German spies during WWI; and the story of the slanderous impact of racism on past biographers of Warren Harding, who was believed to have African-American ancestry in his line.