This carefully selected collection of letters, spanning from the earliest days of the Republic to the present, were pulled from the extensive holdings of the National Archives. Archivists searched through hundreds of letters held throughout their network, which includes all of the Presidential libraries. Dear Mr. President reproduces 75 letters from everyday citizens and some quite famous people: John Glenn, Elvis Presley, Walt Disney, Ho Chi Minh, Nikita Kruschev, Upton Sinclair, John Steinbeck, Robert Kennedy, and many more.

An introduction by NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams and essays by Dwight Young illuminate and expand the tenor of the times in which the letters were written. Full-size facsimiles of the letters are reproduced with transcripts of the text for easy reading, and letters are grouped thematically: Civil rights, the cold war, physical fitness, joblessness, World War II, the space race, western expansion, among many other topics.

Dear Mr. President is a charming walk through American history through the eyes of ordinary and extraordinary people writing to their President.