presidential history 
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SOURCE: NPR
1/17/2021
In His Inaugural Address, Biden Seeks To Move Past 'American Carnage'
Historians of the presidency and political rhetoric discuss how Biden's address on Wednesday may adapt the traditions of the inaugural address to an unprecedented context.
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SOURCE: Politico
1/17/2021
What Will Trump's Presidency Mean to History?
by David Greenberg
Above all else, a pattern of rule-breaking and a determination not to be bound by rules are the characteristics of Trumpism, and inseparable from the policies the 45th president pursued.
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SOURCE: CNN
1/17/2021
Trump's Last Year In Office Will Define His Legacy, Historians Say
A group of presidential historians including Timothy Naftali, Jeff Engel, Julian Zelizer, Laura Belmonte, Kathryn Brownell, H.W. Brands, Lindsay Chervinsky, Martha Jones, and Barbara Perry discuss what results of the Trump presidency – from resurgent white nationalism to battered norms of governing – will prove to be the most historically consequential.
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1/17/2020
The Politics of an Inauguration Unlike Any Other
by Michael A. Genovese
Joe Biden's inauguration will be unlike any other, but he will need to draw on inaugural traditions of declaring purpose and invoking solidarity if he is to begin to repair national division.
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1/17/2021
The History of Skipping a Successor's Inauguration
by Michael Patrick Cullinane
Trump's decision to skip Biden's inauguration might seem like a mere petty gesture. But it harkens back to previous episodes that reflected times of deep division and political conflict.
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1/13/2021
The Problem with a Self-Pardon
by Robert J. Spitzer
It is likely that the issue of a president's ability to pardon himself will be contested in short order. A constitutional scholar of the presidency explains why such an action cannot be countenanced in a society of law.
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1/10/2021
Teddy Roosevelt and Josh Hawley's History Lessons
by David Goldfischer
Josh Hawley wrote a 2008 biography of Theodore Roosevelt balancing praise of the former president's vision of democracy with condemnation of his grasping for power. One wonders how the author of this book could have acted as the Senator did on January 6.
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SOURCE: Boston Review
12/21/2020
The False Promise of Obama's 'Promised Land'
by Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins
A critique of the first volume of Obama's presidential memoir argues that the 44th President was unwilling to acknowledge the limits of the centrist liberal politics of the 1990s and unable to consider more progressive alternatives.
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SOURCE: PBS News Hour
12/7/2020
How Rocky Presidential Transitions Have Shaped American History
Beverly Gage of Yale University explains how presidential transitions have tested the nation in the past.
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SOURCE: National Geographic
12/4/2020
The Contentious History of U.S. Presidential Pardons—From the Whiskey Rebellion to Watergate
Rumors that Donald Trump has considered offering preemptive pardons to his children and inner circle of advisors prompt a consideration of the history of the pardon power.
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SOURCE: Norfolk Virginian-Pilot
12/5/2020
Wrestling With Woodrow Wilson’s Complicated Legacy
A longtime Virginia political observer suggests that there is more to learn by considering Woodrow Wilson's complex social views and political legacy than by taking his clear racism as reason to hide him from sight.
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SOURCE: Foreign Affairs
12/8/2020
Cleaning House: Watergate and the Limits of Reform
by John A. Lawrence
The reform agenda of the "Watergate Babies" class elected to Congress in 1974 achieved important successes but failed to prevent either the rise of the imperial presidency or increased partisan polarization.
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SOURCE: New York Times
12/2/2020
Trump Hints at Another Act in Four Years, Just Like Grover Cleveland
Trump would join several one-term presidents who sought a non-consecutive second term. The effort ended badly for most of them.
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SOURCE: Washington Post
12/1/2020
Laws and Customs Guide Presidential Transitions — But Some Go off the Rails Anyway
"Since 1937, Election Day and Inauguration Day have been about 75 days apart — not much time to set up a new administration, but plenty of time for things to go wrong."
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SOURCE: Washington Post
11/24/2020
The Ugliest Presidential Election in History: Fraud, Voter Intimidation and a Backroom Deal
Any comparison between the disputed election of 1876 and today must put the role of racist terrorism against black voters by figures like South Carolina's "Pitchfork" Ben Tillman at the center of analysis, contents Ronald G. Shafer.
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SOURCE: New York Times
12/1/2020
Exhume the Body of Warren G. Harding? A Judge Says That Won’t Be Necessary
Previously resistant descendants of Warren G. Harding had denied proof based on commercial DNA testing that plaintiff James Blaesing was Harding's grandson. With exhumation looming, they conceded that Blaesing was a descendant of Harding and mistress Nan Britton.
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SOURCE: American Historical Association
12/1/2020
AHA Joins Lawsuit to Protect Historical Records
The AHA is party to a lawsuit pressing the Trump administration and the National Archives to comply with laws requiring complete preservation of presidential records.
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SOURCE: New York Times
11/29/2020
Trump Looms Large Now, but Maybe Not Forever
by Steve Inskeep
NPR's Steve Inskeep reflects on the prospect that historical distance will make Trump and Trumpism smaller (and not all-consuming) parts of a story about American society struggling with bigger questions of political, economic and social equality that became increasingly contentious during the Obama era.
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SOURCE: Washington Post
11/29/2020
The 10th President’s Last Surviving Grandson: A Bridge to the Nation’s Complicated Past
by Gillian Brockell
Harrison Ruffin Tyler, at age 91, is a rare example of a person whose life and family history connect the present to the era of the early republic in two generations.
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SOURCE: FiveThirtyEight
11/30/2020
What Makes A One-Term President?
by Julia Azari
In earlier eras, one-term presidencies were more the rule than the exception, but Donald Trump is a rarity among modern presidents in losing his bid for reelection. A scholar of the presidency examines the shift.
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