Writing
Reading Madison's Mail
Bulletins from the frontiers of research: When it came to negotiating the Louisiana Purchase, American diplomats James Monroe and Robert Livingston sewed up the deal in a couple of weeks. When it came to squabbling over credit, the two diplomats spent eighteen months writing backbiting letters to James Madison (Secretary of State) explaining in excrutiating detail…
Read MoreWas King Richard III really all that bad?
After 500 years, we now know where the bones of King Richard III of England are. They have been found under a parking lot in Leicester, England, near the site of the Battle of Bosworth where he was slain. The evil genius of Shakespeare’s history plays, Richard — hunchbacked, vicious, fiendish clever — was the…
Read MoreA True Collector, Part 2
We last left our hero in the Dallas library of Harlan Crow, admiring the paintings of three World War II leaders (Eisenhower, Churchill, and Hitler). Outside the library, however, lurked even greater wonders: a collection of gigantic statues of some of the 20th centuries most monstrous dictators, including — Lenin Stalin Mao Tse Tung Chou…
Read MoreA True Collector, part 1
While in Dallas a couple of weeks ago, I was lucky enough to get a tour of the Harlan Crow Library, which is in Mr. Crow’s home. It was an amazing treat. After making our way past a couple of Charles Willson Peale portraits, we proceeded into his World War II room (or so I…
Read MoreJames Madison, Climate Change Guru?
James Madison was a thoughtful fellow. Very. He and his pal Jefferson were amateur scientists, forever corresponding about their observations of natural phenomena or some new wacky theory coming out of those European know-it-alls. Jefferson usually gets all the credit for being a renaissance man while Madison gets credit for being . . . short. But Madison had some…
Read MoreNice Words From the Academy
History writers like me (that is, those without doctorates) sometimes develop a bit of a ‘tude about academics who occasionally sneer at our efforts. An Ivy League type wrote of my first book (and I paraphrase), “I don’t know why they publish books like this.” Because people like to read them! In any event, a distinguished historian…
Read MoreThe Shadow of Gore Vidal
Anyone who writes about Aaron Burr — like me, for example, in American Emperor — has to wrestle with the shadow of Gore Vidal. Vidal rendered Burr as a marvelous three-dimensional character in his rollicking historical novel with the admirably simple title, Burr. I read Vidal’s Burr when it came out in 1973 and ate it up. It was…
Read MoreColonel Burr is going to the National Book Festival
I am very happy to report that I will be talking about Colonel Burr and his Western expedition at the National Book Festival on the Mall in Washington, DC. I’m scheduled for Sunday afternoon, September 23, thought the exact time has not been set. The festival is a great two-day event which was first organized…
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. …
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