Departments

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Joe Biden

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    4/13/2021

    Biden Can Redeem His Mistake

    by George Packer

    Writer George Packer argues that withdrawing from Afghanistan repeats a mistake of the Vietnam era: abandoning groups who took the grave risk of allying with the United States. 

  • SOURCE: The New Yorker
    4/6/2021

    The Meaning of the Democrats’ Spending Spree

    by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

    Joe Biden supported a balanced budget amendment in 1995, ran as the "establishment" candidate in the Democratic primaries, and has been a regular advocate of bipartisanship. So why is his administration proposing the massive American Rescue Plan Act, and showing a willingness to act without securing Republican cooperation? A tour of recent history can explain. 

  • SOURCE: Axios
    3/25/2021

    Inside Biden’s Private Chat With Historians

    A recent meeting with the President was convened by Jon Meacham and featured Doris Kearns Goodwin, Michael Beschloss, Michael Eric Dyson, Joanne Freeman, Eddie Glaude Jr., Annette Gordon-Reed and Walter Isaacson. Topics included historical comparison of large-scale policy initiatives. 

  • 3/7/2021

    The Return of Human Rights on the American Agenda?

    by Richard Moe

    One of Jimmy Carter's legacies, albeit erratically observed, has been the assertion of human rights as a foreign policy priority. After four years of ignoring the issue, will the US under Joe Biden reclaim leadership in high-stakes relationships with Russia and Saudi Arabia? 

  • 2/21/2021

    Advice to POTUS 46 from POTUS 1

    by David O. Stewart

    The author of a recent political biography of George Washington wonders how the first president would guide the most recent one. 

  • SOURCE: Politico
    2/17/2021

    Reparations Bill Tests Biden and Harris on Racial Justice

    The President and Vice President have endorsed the establishment of a commission to study the issue of reparations for slavery and post-emancipation racism against African Americans. It is yet to be seen whether the White House can please proponents and opponents if the commission moves toward concrete findings and recommendations. 

  • 2/14/2021

    Opportunities for a Catholic President, Then and Now

    by Patrick Lacroix

    Polling of religious voters might encourage Democrats to give up on reaching them. John F. Kennedy's experience shows that Joe Biden, as the second Catholic President, could succeed in narrowing the gap. 

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    2/10/2021

    The New Deal’s Capitalist Lessons for Joe Biden

    by Louis Hyman

    An economic historian argues that the greatest impact of the New Deal came from programs that guided the investment of private capital to social ends, rather than direct expenditure on public works. 

  • 2/7/2021

    To Save Democracy, We Need Historical Memory to be "Hot"

    by Shannon Bontrager

    Historical memory can run hot or cold; hot memory, when we make ourselves vulnerable to the pain of the past, is a force that will ensure America doesn't just move on from the needless death of the COVID pandemic or the violence of the Capitol insurrection without committing to justice and accountability.

  • SOURCE: TomDispatch
    1/31/2021

    Been There, Done That (Not!)

    by Tom Engelhardt

    "At 76 — almost as old, that is, as our new president — I fear that Donald Trump was just our (particularly bizarre) introduction to imperial disaster. We now live on a distinctly misused planet in a country that looks like it could be going to the dogs."

  • SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
    1/29/2021

    The Secret to Success for Biden’s First 100 Days

    by Amber Roessner

    Since Franklin Roosevelt, new presidents have been measured by the standard of the "First 100 Days." As a result, they've learned to aggressively manage the media and in turn received blowback from the press corps. The presidential "honeymoon" period is a thing of the past. 

  • 1/31/2021

    How Biden used the VP Springboard to Vault into the Oval Office

    by Joel K. Goldstein

    Joe Biden's leap from VP to POTUS is a rarity. Vice presidents are often contenders, but seldom successful. Circumstance helped Biden break the mold, but so did learning on the job as second-in-command to become a more credible candidate for the top job. 

  • 1/25/2021

    Biden's Inaugural and the Return of History

    by Paul J. Welch Behringer

    Joseph Biden's inaugural address signals a willingness to return to learning from history that may encourage the empathy and humilty elected officials need to solve the nation's problems.