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H. W. Brands

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Reagan refused to demonize his foes. Instead he charmed them, with a few exceptions, including Tip O'Neill, the Democratic Speaker of the House and the embodiment of the liberalism Reagan sought to reverse. - H. W. Brands
#He
#House
#Liberalism
#Reverse
#Tip
President Trump is doing what he can to act decisively. And if there's one thing most people have in mind in distinguishing the business world from the political world is that the CEO of a business can act decisively. - H. W. Brands
#Business
#Doing
#Mind
#Political
#World
In revering the Founders, we undervalue ourselves and sabotage our own efforts to make improvements - necessary improvements - in the republican experiment they began. - H. W. Brands
#Experiment
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#Our
#Own
#Republican
I'm often asked, 'Why didn't Benjamin Franklin ever become president?' My short, easy answer is: He died. - H. W. Brands
#Answer
#Easy
#He
#Short
#Why
He used humor more effectively than any president since Abraham Lincoln. Reagan was not an especially warm person, but he appeared to be. Many people disliked his policies, but almost no one disliked him. - H. W. Brands
#Almost
#Humor
#More
#People
#Person
When a president doesn't know the policy, it doesn't make for a very effective leader. - H. W. Brands
#Know
#Leader
#Make
#Policy
#President
Reagan's enduring value as a conservative icon stems from his resolute preaching of the conservative gospel, in words that still warm the hearts of the most zealous conservatives. Yet Reagan's value as a conservative model must begin with recognition of his flexibility in the pursuit of his conservative goals. - H. W. Brands
#Goals
#Gospel
#Recognition
#Value
#Words
You might say presidents are drafting the first chapter of their memoirs in these seventh-year State of the Union addresses. They're trying to get the public and the media to think about their presidencies in the way that they would like to have them thought of. - H. W. Brands
#Chapter
#Media
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#Trying
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Members of Congress are somewhat reluctant to tangle with a president who seems to have the backing of the American people. - H. W. Brands
#American
#Congress
#People
#Seems
#Who
Interest in the Founders has risen and fallen over time, as has admiration for them and their accomplishments. - H. W. Brands
#Admiration
#Fallen
#Interest
#Over
#Time
Presidents are evaluated not by what they did by the stroke of their own pen; it's what they persuade Congress to do. - H. W. Brands
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#Did
#Own
#Pen
#Persuade
In the academic world, biographies of these great figures of the past fell out of favor in the 1960s, when there was a turn toward social history, which meant the history of the voiceless and faceless. But the public at large never embraced the idea that these dead white guys should be abandoned. - H. W. Brands
#Dead
#Great
#History
#Past
#World
When people think of the oil industry, they think of Rockefeller, much like when people think of the software industry, they think of Bill Gates. - H. W. Brands
#Industry
#Oil
#People
#Software
#Think
For Andrew Jackson, politics was very personal. He hated not just the federal debt. He hated debt at all. - H. W. Brands
#Debt
#He
#Just
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#Politics
The more of my readers I encounter who say, often apologetically, that they are actually listeners, the more I write for the ear rather than the eye. Small things like identifying speakers in dialogue rather than relying on paragraphing to mark the shifts. - H. W. Brands
#Dialogue
#Mark
#More
#Say
#Small Things
When the Constitution was written in 1787, there was this supposition that American politics would be above party. The people who would staff the positions in government would have the interests of the country, or at least their states and congressional districts, at heart, and so they wouldn't form permanent political parties. - H. W. Brands
#Government
#Heart
#Political
#Politics
People who teach American history survey classes have a lot of ground to cover and tend to focus on landmarks. You get through the Civil War and Reconstruction, and you have to get to the beginning of the 20th century fast. It's pretty easy to go lightly on the Gilded Age. - H. W. Brands
#Age
#American
#Focus
#History
#War
Every year, I have my graduate students read the great works of history, from classical times to the present. They gamely tackle Tacitus, ponder Plutarch, plow through Gibbon. Then they get to Thomas Carlyle and feel like Dorothy when she touched down in Technicolor Oz. - H. W. Brands
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#Great
#History
#Present
#She
Politics is not something most people have to do every day. Their daily lives are much more influenced by job opportunities, whether the country is in a recession or a boom period. If you really want to understand what drives American history, look at the economic... side. - H. W. Brands
#Daily
#Day
#History
#Look
#Politics
A lot of people were ambivalent about Vietnam. Lyndon Johnson in 1964 positioned himself as the peace candidate. Once Johnson sent large amounts of troops into battle in 1965, most Americans were behind the war. - H. W. Brands
#Battle
#Candidate
#Peace
#People
#War
Everything that happens today is like something in the past, but it's also unlike things in the past. We never know until an event happens if it's the similarities or differences that matter more. - H. W. Brands
#Differences
#Know
#Never
#Past
#Today
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