Leadership
Echoes of George Washington in Joe Biden?
Our current president has never been confused with the nearly mythical figure who first occupied that office more than 230 years ago. Not ever. Yet there are striking parallels between the challenges both leaders faced, and between the qualities they embodied. Both took office in times of crisis. The economic condition of the United States…
Read MoreTwo Peas in a Pod: Trump and Andrew Johnson
Two Peas in a Pod: Trump and Andrew Johnson With the announcement that he will not attend the inauguration of President Joseph Biden, outgoing President Donald Trump cemented the connection between himself and another one-term president who refused to attend the inauguration of his successor: Andrew Johnson. For a century and a half, no president…
Read MoreMadness at the U.S. Capitol
In the aftermath of yesterday’s attack on the U.S. Capitol, a history publication posed provocative questions to me. These are my responses: What is your view of what happened at the Capitol yesterday? Was this an attempted coup d’etat, or peaceful demonstration gone wrong? Neither. The attack on the Capitol was not a true coup…
Read MoreThe Virtual Author Talk: How to, and How Not To
Sure, the times are weird in CovidWorld, but we’re all making the best of it. One of those make-the-best-of-it structures is the virtual author talk. I’ve done a few virtual author events so far, and attended quite a few more, and have some thoughts about them. I won’t talk about choice of digital platform, since…
Read MoreWhat Happens When the President Gets Sick?
The recent news of positive COVID-19 tests for a valet for President Trump and an aide to Vice President Pence revive a thorny question: What happens if the president gets sick? As shown by the corona-related illness of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the virus can incapacitate those in high office. What happens if we…
Read MoreImpeachment and George Washington: When it rains, it pours
Back in April, I wrote two short pieces on history topics of interest to me — impeachment trials and George Washington. So, naturally enough, they both launched on the web this weekend, within 24 hours of each other. So I might as well promote them together, right? You can check out: My take that historians…
Read MoreDoes Going There Matter?
Multi-prize-winning author T.J. Stiles (Custer’s Trials, The First Tycoon) recently posed this question on social media. “Do historians have to visit the sites in their books?” he asked. “I say no, no more than you have to have been alive in the times you write about.” Stiles contended that what is important is “personal experience,”…
Read MoreTrump: Haunted Anew by the Ghost of Andrew Johnson
More echoes of the benighted Andrew Johnson Administration of 1865-69 reverberate around President Trump with the current logjam at the top of the Consumer Financial Protection Board. Deputy Director Leandra English asserts the statutory right to direct the agency following the resignation of its director; claiming to act under a different law, President Trump has…
Read MoreUp Next: G. Washington, America's Master Politician
I’ve just signed with a Penguin imprint, New American Library, to write a book about The Big Guy — GWash himself, the Master of Mount Vernon, the man-myth who was indisputably the key figure in the founding of the United States and without whom, well, things would have gone very different and a whole lot…
Read More225th Birthday of America's Bill of Rights!
I’m delighted to be among the first to proclaim the 225th anniversary of the ratification of America’s Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution. Those amendments protect individual liberties that Americans hold most dear, and became central to our national character after the Fourteenth Amendment (adopted in 1868) applied them against state…
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