History Afloat
This October, I will be exploring a new way to share history, as the featured lecturer on a Chesapeake Bay cruise of the Yorktown. The journey will start in Philadelphia, head to Annapolis and Maryland’s Eastern Shore, then the James River and Richmond, and finally finishing up at Mount Vernon and Alexandria. The full itinerary, which will…
Read MoreFive Myths of the Constitutional Convention
Two hundred twenty-five years ago today, several dozen worried Americans met in Philadelphia to change the American government. Some of the delegates to that 1787 convention intended only to rewrite the Articles of Confederation, which had been in effect for only six years but already were failing. Others aimed to scrap the Articles entirely and…
Read MoreThe Problem of Intellectual Theft
What can a writer do when someone else takes his work without admitting it? That’s the question posed in a poignant and measured piece posted today by Richard Labunski at the History News Network. In 2006, Labunski published James Madison and the Struggle for the Bill of Rights. As part of that book, he addressed…
Read MoreA "Forever" Stamp for Thaddeus Stevens!
I agree with Don Gallagher of Lititz, PA: It’s time to honor Thad Stevens. While working on Impeached, my book about the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson, I developed a powerful respect and affection for Congressman Thaddeus Stevens, the “Radical” Republican from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Even though he was never Speaker of the House of…
Read MoreThe head grows ever larger
“In time of actual war, great discretionary powers are constantly given to the executive magistrate. Constant apprehension of war has the same tendency to render the head too large for the body.” James Madison, Constitutional Convention, June 29, 1787 Producing a book on James Madison presents a great many challenges. A major one, I am…
Read MoreGive the Little Man a Chance!
While attending the Washington Nationals’ Opening Day on Thursday, I immediately collided with the team’s one tremendous success: its marketing of the mid-game Presidents’ Race. For those of you who have not enjoyed a game at Nationals Park, this involves four individuals wearing costumes with giant heads that dimly resemble Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and TR. …
Read MoreAnti-whose-trust? The Problem of E-Books
I rise on a point of personal privilege. My government, in the form of the U.S. Department of Justice, has just brought a legal action that will make my life considerably worse. It has sued five publishing houses and Apple under what we somewhat nostalgically still call the “antitrust” laws. As an author of three…
Read MoreMr. Speaker, Not Mr. President
As his presidential campaign slides toward the back pages of the history he loves to quote, Newt Gingrich may want to reflect on one lesson of history that he never mentions: what a weak platform the House Speakership has proved to be for presidential candidates. Although House Speakers are national figures, they have faded from…
Read MoreWorld War I: Too Big to Write?
Having just finished the terrific, deeply flawed The Beauty and the Sorrow by Peter Englund, about World War I, I find myself wondering if it is possible to write a sensible history of that massive, world-changing conflict. I hope people keep trying to do so, because I want to try to understand it better, but…
Read MoreThe Puzzle of Race at Monticello
The Smithsonian’s Museum of American History has a current exhibition on Slavery at Monticello, which is well worth checking out. I toured it yesterday. Anyone who has slogged through Annette Gordon-Reed’s immense work, The Hemingses of Monticello, will not find much that is terribly new. But I did learn something that brought home — one…
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