presidential history

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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.

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• 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."

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• SOURCE: ArtNet News
  5/19/2020
  

  In a Sign of a Divided America, President Trump Will Not Unveil Barack Obama’s New Portrait in the White House Anytime Soon

  Portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama will likely not be installed at the White House until Trump is out of office.

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• SOURCE: London Review of Books
  5/21/2020
  

  The Corrupt Bargain (Review Essay)

  by Eric Foner

  Eric Foner argues that reasons both strategic and idealistic informed the establishment of the Electoral College, and recent books support the case for its abolition. 

• 
• SOURCE: Axios
  5/25/2020
  

  Ken Burns: Coronavirus Pandemic Is Crisis "On The Level" Of Civil War And Great Depression (Podcast)

  On this podcast, the filmmaker and historian Geoffrey Ward discuss American leadership during moments of crisis.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  5/26/2020
  

  We’ve Forgotten the Worst President in American History

  by Ted Widmer

  What is the legacy of bad presidents today? Do we need them to remind us of the perils of the job? If so, Americans should be grateful to James Buchanan.

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• SOURCE: Wall Street Journal
  5/22/2020
  

  ‘How Did We Get Here?’ Review: Why Presidents Win

  In reviewing Robert Dallek's recent book, Robert Merry argues that the writer short-changes the agency of voters and the significance of the basic political and economic conditions in determining who wins a presidential election. 

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• SOURCE: Smithsonian Magazine
  5/19/2020
  

  Warren Harding Tried to Return America to ‘Normalcy’ After WWI and the 1918 Pandemic. It Failed.

  by William Deverell

  The lessons from his presidency show that a quick retreat to the past can be just a mirage.

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• SOURCE: TIME
  5/19/2020
  

  When the Economy Collapses, Talk Is Cheap—Just Look What Led Up to the Great Depression

  by Robert Dallek

  For American leaders, the Great Depression is as much a lesson in what not to do as it is in what to do.

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• SOURCE: The New York Times
  5/16/2020
  

  Sorry, Abe Lincoln Is Not on the Ballot

  Historian David W. Blight contextualizes the use of Lincoln, and other not-so-popular presidents, in modern political discourse.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  5/7/2020
  

  Trump Knows He’s No Lincoln. That’s Why He’s Obsessed With Him.

  by Sidney Blumenthal

  Trump, with his martyr envy, has felt a compulsion to diminish Lincoln whenever he raises his name.

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• 5/10/2020
  

  60 Years Ago, West Virginia Helped Make JFK President

  by Robert Rupp

  JFK's diligent campaigning in West Virginian in 1960 overcame the state's suspicion of his Catholic faith and later put Appalachia on the nation's policy agenda.

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• 5/10/2020
  

  “The Last Dance” is the ‘Presidential Historian’ of Documentaries

  by Jason Steinhauer

  Viewers have embraced the ESPN Documentary "The Last Dance" as an escape and the best sports "fix" around. But its framing of leadership reflects a serious issue: the limits of how American media presents history.

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• SOURCE: Huffington Post
  5/4/2020
  

  Presidential Historian Takes Apart Trump’s Claim He’s ‘Treated Worse’ Than Lincoln

  Doris Kearns Goodwin added some perspective to the president’s complaint.

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• SOURCE: Vox
  5/5/2020
  

  The Supreme Court Hears the Biggest Presidential Immunity Cases since Nixon

  Should the most powerful man in the nation be given extraordinary legal immunity? Or does the fact that the president wields such power demand oversight of the man who holds that office?

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  5/1/2020
  

  How to Run for President in the Middle of a Pandemic

  by Jon Grinspan

  In the 19th century, ordinary citizens did incredible amounts of work for their parties, while nominees sat idle.

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• SOURCE: Bloomberg
  5/3/2020
  

  Trump and Lincoln Are Opposite Kinds of Presidents

  When historians rank the worst presidents in American history, indecision and inaction in the face of crisis are common attributes. Until now, most of the worst served before or after the Civil War.