presidential history

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• 8/9/2020
  

  The 1976 Election: Why We Can't Predict Vice Presidential Selections in Advance

  by Daniel K. Williams

  The 1976 campaign highlights a paradox: while the person a presidential nominee chooses as their running mate might be surprising, that individual is selected using criteria that are predictable. 

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• SOURCE: History.com
  7/29/2020
  

  5 Vice Presidential Candidates Who Made History

  Historian Elizabeth Varon rates Andrew Johnson's selection as Vice President disastrous because of his ascenscion to the presidency. 

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• SOURCE: Bill Moyers
  7/22/2020
  

  Historic Levels, but Not the Good Kind

  by Heather Cox Richardson

  Warren G. Harding created an atmosphere in which the point of government was not to help ordinary Americans, but to see how much leaders could get out of it.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  7/20/2020
  

  Trump Has the Worst Record at The Supreme Court of Any Modern President

  The court has shown less deference to presidents in recent years. Even so, Trump stands out.

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• 7/19/2020
  

  Make Digital History a National Common Ground

  by Stewart D. McLaurin

  No one should be at a disadvantage because they can’t visit D.C., or other historical landmarks like Presidential homes and libraries. We can take advantage of our increased dependence on online learning to inspire students, no matter where they live.

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• 7/19/2020
  

  Who Was Our Worst President? Think About it When a Grim 75th Anniversary Arrives

  by Paul W. Lovinger

  The anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki should inspire consideration of the global fallout from Harry Truman's presidential decisions. 

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• SOURCE: The Bulwark
  7/14/2020
  

  Presidential Pardons and the Spirit of Clemency

  by Ron Radosh

  It is difficult to imagine, in these divided and troubling days, that our nation once had a conservative Republican president who believed that a socialist like Debs was just an American citizen with whom he disagreed, not an enemy who ought to be destroyed. 

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• SOURCE: CNN
  7/12/2020
  

  Historians Will Likely Rank Trump as One of the Worst Presidents

  If Trump goes on to lose in November, he doesn't just need to worry about losing to Biden. Trump needs to worry about the fact that the history books are probably going to put him down as a below average president, if not one of the worst.

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• SOURCE: New York Review of Books
  7/3/2020
  

  ‘The Most Ignorant and Unfit’: What Made America’s Worst Ever Leader?

  by David Rothkopf

  The best—maybe only—saving grace for Trump in the history books is that no one could accuse him of causing the Civil War.

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• SOURCE: USA Today
  7/6/2020
  

  As Divisions Threaten America, The Pressure To Cancel Presidents Is Dangerous

  Any hint of admiration for Lee means automatic cancellation these days but in the mid-20th century, it was ordinary and accepted.   

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• 6/21/2020
  

  Ghosts of Neshoba: Why Trump Can't Dog Whistle His Way Back to the White House

  by Rick Perlstein

  Ronald Reagan's notorious "states' rights" pledge in Mississippi in 1980 was actually damaging to his campaign. The Gipper needed all his political skill and actor's discipline to rebuild his standing with moderates while still appealing to resentful white voters. Donald Trump lacks the skill to pull off the same trick.

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• SOURCE: Politico
  6/14/2020
  

  Why Trump Is Right To Worry About That Glass of Water

  Trump's anger at internet speculation about his health reflects a serious concern: perceptions of vigor and physical strength have long been influential in presidential politics.

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• SOURCE: Frank Interviews
  6/18/2020
  

  Rick Perlstein on Our "Law and Order" Presidents

  "I've been very fortunate in choosing the right topic."

• 
• 6/14/2020
  

  What if Trump Refuses to Leave?

  by Richard Striner

  History offers few guidelines for how to handle the increasingly plausible scenario of a defeated president refusing to leave office. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  6/5/2020
  

  Trump’s Claim that He’s Done More for Black Americans than any President Since Lincoln (Fact Check)

  Historians Michael Beschloss, David Garrow, H.W. Brands, Max J. Skidmore and David Greenberg argue that LBJ is in fact second to Lincoln in this regard.

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• SOURCE: TomDispatch
  5/31/2020
  

  Donald Trump May Not Be Herbert Hoover

  by Tom Engelhardt

  Trump, unlike President Herbert Hoover, may usher us into a true Great Depression and possibly not suffer a staggering defeat at the polls in November, as that president did in 1932.

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• SOURCE: TIME
  6/2/2020
  

  Trump Declared Himself the 'President of Law and Order.' Here's What People Get Wrong About the Origins of That Idea

  Historian Elizabeth Hinton's research suggests that this platform truly took hold under the Johnson administration.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  5/31/2020
  

  This Election Isn't 1968 or 1992 or 2016

  Richard Nixon won by portraying himself as a unifier against an out-of-control left; Bill Clinton won reelection by carefully navigating the politics of crime and unrest. There is nothing very careful, yet, about what we've seen from this president.

• 
• 5/31/2020
  

  JFK at 103: What We Miss

  by Joseph A. Esposito

  John F. Kennedy was born on May 29, 1917. Although much of the Camelot ideal was mythical, Kennedy's optimism and purposefulness are nevertheless missed today.

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• SOURCE: WBUR
  5/27/2020
  

  What We Learn From FDR's New Deal

  "A president alone can't do everything," says historian Lizabeth Cohen, "that president needs a supportive Congress."