presidential history 
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SOURCE: The Conversation
4/14/2021
Trump, Defying Custom, Hasn’t Given the National Archives Records of His Speeches at Political Rallies
by Shannon Bow O'Brien
"Until President Trump, there have been no missing public speeches in the permanent collection. By removing these speeches, Trump is creating a false perception of his presidency, making it look more serious and traditional."
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4/11/2021
Political Precedent for the Trump Cult of Personality
by Donne Levy
Their differences in character and personality should not obscure similarities between Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump. Both men's ability to flout the truth and survive serious scandals, plus their dalliances with white racism, make their political careers resemble cults of personality.
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SOURCE: Wall Street Journal
3/26/2021
Lindsay Chervinsky's Five Best Books on Presidential Cabinets
The author of an acclaimed book about George Washington's creation of the cabinet recommends five books about presidential cabinets, including those of Lincoln, Eisenhower and JFK, the unofficial team of African American advisors to FDR, and the consequential relationship between George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.
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3/28/2021
Is History Ready to Judge the Trump Presidency?
by Samuel (Shenger) Zhou
Understandings of presidential success and failure might have to be revised for Donald Trump; while Trump failed to win reelection, his media tactics will allow him, unlike the previous Republican president George W. Bush, to retain control of his party and remain a national force even out of office. Is this the future of the presidency?
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SOURCE: Governing
3/4/2021
From Washington to Trump: What Is Dereliction of Duty?
by Lindsay Chervinsky
Public ideas of the presidential duty to defend the nation against foreign and domestic enemies have evolved over two centuries; if Donald Trump had been president in 1793, his response to a pandemic wouldn't have cost him reelection.
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2/28/2021
Photography Always Needed the Presidents
by Cara Finnegan
In the 1840s, the new technology of photography staked its place in the culture as an authoritative, reliable recording of events through the creation of images of the presidents or, in the case of George Washington, pictures of pictures of the presidents.
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SOURCE: The Bulwark
2/22/2021
How George Washington Didn’t Lead
Historians Lindsay Chervinsky, Noemie Emery, David Head and Craig Bruce Smith offer reflections in a virtual forum on the first president's leadership.
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2/21/2021
Advice to POTUS 46 from POTUS 1
by David O. Stewart
The author of a recent political biography of George Washington wonders how the first president would guide the most recent one.
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SOURCE: The Bulwark
2/12/2021
What Good Is Impeachment, Anyway?
by Lindsay M. Chervinsky
The Constitution sets forth an expectation that Congress will check the power of the executive, through impeachment if necessary. The fact that it has failed to do so in th past doesn't excuse inaction in the present.
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2/14/2021
Lincoln and the Lesson of Leading From Behind
by Michael J. Gerhardt
Joe Biden's inaugural address signals his willingness to follow Abraham Lincoln in "leading from behind" by listening and lifting the voices of others.
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SOURCE: MSNBC
2/8/2021
Vice President Kamala Harris Could Kill the Filibuster Herself
Columnist Hayes Brown looks at Kamala Harris's tiebreaking role in the context of the changing prestige and power of vice presidents from John Adams to Mike Pence.
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SOURCE: Medium
2/8/2021
The Difference Between a Great President and a Terrible One is Empathy
by Lindsay Chervinsky
"As President Trump begins his post-presidential life, Americans will start to reckon with his legacy. They need look no farther than his callous indifference to human life — his response to the crisis marks the ultimate failure of presidential leadership."
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1/31/2021
How Biden used the VP Springboard to Vault into the Oval Office
by Joel K. Goldstein
Joe Biden's leap from VP to POTUS is a rarity. Vice presidents are often contenders, but seldom successful. Circumstance helped Biden break the mold, but so did learning on the job as second-in-command to become a more credible candidate for the top job.
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SOURCE: New York Times
1/23/2021
The Trump Presidency Is Now History. So How Will It Rank?
Historians disagree whether Trump surpasses the awfulness of Buchanan or Andrew Johnson, but a roster of them consulted by the Times agrees he was terrible.
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1/25/2021
Biden's Inaugural and the Return of History
by Paul J. Welch Behringer
Joseph Biden's inaugural address signals a willingness to return to learning from history that may encourage the empathy and humilty elected officials need to solve the nation's problems.
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1/24/2021
George Washington Resisted the Siren Call of Absolute Power
by Jan-Benedict Steenkamp
George Washington is celebrated for his refusal to continue past two terms as President. But his earlier actions in refusing the leadership of a military coup against the Continental Congress in 1783 put the new nation on track to have civilian leadership under law.
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1/22/2021
Kamala Harris and the Modern Vice Presidency
by Richard Moe
Kamala Harris seems poised to exert influence over policy and legislation as vice president. In this sense, she will carry forward the evolution of the office, according to a former vice presidential chief of staff who contributed to the development of the "modern vice presidency."
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SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
1/17/2021
No, the Constitution Does not Allow President Trump to Pardon Himself
by Dale Carpenter
The history of debate over the pardon power in the Constitiution strongly supports the claim that a president's pardon of themselves would be unconstitutional.
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SOURCE: The New Yorker
1/15/2021
The Lessons of the Nixon Pardon
Isaac Chotiner interviews Rick Perlstein on the nature of presidential misconduct and accountability.
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SOURCE: The Atlantic
1/19/2021
The Worst President in History
by Tim Naftali
Previously condemned presidents have failed in some aspect of their oaths of office, whether by abusing power, failing to confront national crises, or putting self-interest over the nation. Trump has done all of this, argues the first director of the Nixon Library.
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