presidential history

• 
• SOURCE: The New Republic
  9/24/2020
  

  Weaken the Presidency—Even If Biden Wins

  The conduct of the Trump administration shows a long trend of increased presidential power must be stopped. 

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• 9/27/2020
  

  Debates Are Unpredictable

  by Ron Faucheux

  In a close election, a debate can matter, and debates are lost more than they are won. Some examples from the television era of campaigning should give viewers a sense of how to judge Biden and Trump on Tuesday night. 

• 
• 9/20/2020
  

  Dirty Politics, Then and Now

  by George Herring

  Political mudslinging by presidential surrogates is nothing new. But Trump digs in personally to his social media smears in a way that is unprecedented and degrading to the office and the nation.

• 
• SOURCE: BBC
  9/14/2020
  

  Warren Harding: Grandson of Former US President Asks to Exhume His Remains

  Members of Warren Harding's family have accepted DNA evidence of the paternity of the former president's daughter. Harding's grandson today seeks to have the body exhumed for further testing, possibly to spite the organization that runs the Harding Memorial. 

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• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  9/14/2020
  

  How the Promise of Normalcy Won the 1920 Election

  The Warren Harding presidency promised a return to normalcy after war, pandemic, political unrest and racial violence. The promise proved illusory.

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  9/8/2020
  

  Groomed to Be President: David Kennedy Reviews Fredrik Logevall's JFK Bio

  Fredrik Logevall's new book, the first of two volumes on the life of JFK, pushes back against perceptions of the young Kennedy as an accidental politician or intellectual lightweight, and describes the way world events shaped his worldview.

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  9/1/2020
  

  How Do We Fix the American Presidency?

  Kevin Kruse and Julian Zelizer, along with political scientists William Howell and Terry M. Moe, offer context for growing concerns about the power of the Presidency. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Conversation
  8/26/2020
  

  Presidents Have a Long History of Condescension, Indifference and Outright Racism Towards Black Americans

  by Stephen A. Jones and Eric Freedman

  Political calculation has always been at work in presidential dealings with African Americans, from George Washington to Donald Trump. But often, those dealings also reflected condescension, indifference, racial bias and outright racism in chief executives who took a solemn oath to serve all American citizens equally.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  8/24/2020
  

  No President Or Nominee Ever Spoke At A Convention. Then FDR Broke The Rules

  In 1932, FDR flew to Chicago Stadium and became the first presidential nominee to give an acceptance speech at a political convention.

• 
• SOURCE: The New York Times
  8/25/2020
  

  The Never-Ending War Between the White House and the Press

  A review of Harold Holzer's new book "The President vs. The Press."

• 
• SOURCE: The Guardian
  8/23/2020
  

  A Disputed Election, a Constitutional Crisis, Polarization… Welcome to 1876

  Eric Foner: Rather than 2000, look to the election of 1876 to see what could happen if one party refuses to accept an election result. 

• 
• 8/23/2020
  

  John Adams Knew When to Go Home

  by R.B. Bernstein

  One thing that John Adams never did was to voice a word of regret about leaving the presidency at his term’s end. None of his successors has ever violated or dishonored the precedent he established. And, if we are fortunate, none ever will.

• 
• 8/23/2020
  

  Can Biden Win the Presidency from His Basement?

  by Quentin Janel

  Joe Biden's efforts to run an effective campaign under COVID lockdown echo the innovations forced on James Garfield. If Biden succeeds, the "Basement Campaign" may prove as influential as the "Front Porch Campaign" of 1880.

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• SOURCE: Made By History at The Washington Post
  8/18/2020
  

  How Bill Clinton Turned a Dreadful Convention Speech into Political Stardom

  by Robert Fleegler

  Clinton used a series of television appearances and self-deprecation (and a saxophone) to recover from bombing at the 1988 Democratic convention.   

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  8/17/2020
  

  The Bush-Gore Recount Is an Omen for 2020

  An oral history of the craziest presidential election in modern history.

• 
• SOURCE: Open Society Foundations
  8/12/2020
  

  A History of Presidential Lies (video)

  Author Eric Alterman discusses the history of presidential lying and connects the increased power of the executive to the tendency to propount "alternative facts." 

• 
• SOURCE: Vox
  8/14/2020
  

  Shirley Chisholm’s Historic Presidential Run Helped Lead To This Moment

  “She bridged so many different constituencies and she was an excellent model of the power of grassroots campaigns,” Miami University historian Tammy Brown told Vox.

• 
• 8/16/2020
  

  The Paradox of Executive Underreach

  by Michael A. Genovese

  While the Constitution says more about limiting the overreach of the executive branch, functioning government must beware of an underreaching executive that abdicates responsibility. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  8/10/2020
  

  The Measures of a Successful Vice-Presidential Pick

  by Michael Beschloss

  Now that Joe Biden has announced Senator Kamala Harris will be his running mate, readers can decide how well the pick meets Michael Beschloss's criteria for a beneficial choice. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  8/10/2020
  

  History’s Lessons For Joe Biden

  The anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the circumstances of Roosevelt's failing health should be reminders of the significance of Joe Biden's choice, even beyond the campaign.