presidential history

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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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• SOURCE: The New Republic
  11/12/2020
  

  The Never-Ending Crisis of the Electoral College

  by Bruce Bartlett

  "The inane system our founders developed to choose the president is an anti-democratic remnant of the slavery era that only benefits the GOP"--a longtime political observer endorses the National Popular Vote Compact as a way to circumvent the Electoral College without a constitutional amendment.

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• SOURCE: Smithsonian
  11/12/2020
  

  A Brief History of Presidential Memoirs

  Presidential historian Craig Fehrman says that presidents in the early republican period shunned writing memoirs as vain and self-promoting. The quality of many subsequent presidential books suggests they were on to something. How will the recent first volume of Obama's memoirs be received? 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at The Washington Post
  11/11/2020
  

  A Diverse Cabinet will Make Joe Biden a Better President and Unify the Country

  by Lindsay M. Chervinsky

  "Over the past 230 years, presidents have followed Washington’s lead, making increased diversity and representation of religions, backgrounds, genders and races a central part of the cabinet story."

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  11/14/2020
  

  When the White House Was Full of Claws, Scales, Stripes and Tails

  Although dogs will return to the White House in January and revive a long tradition, past presidents have kept some unusual pets (also, Calvin Coolidge was gifted a raccoon to eat for Thanksgiving dinner). 

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  11/16/2020
  

  Jeffrey Goldberg Interviews Barack Obama on History and the State of Democracy

  "If we were going to have a right-wing populist in this country, I would have expected somebody a little more appealing.”

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• SOURCE: NPR
  11/7/2020
  

  Major And Champ Are Major Champs In This Election: Dogs Return To The White House

  It is probably the least consequential outcome of the election result, but dogs will be returning to the White House. 

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• SOURCE: NBC News
  11/8/2020
  

  Biden's 2020 Election Win over Trump is Step One. But 'Lame Ducks' Can do Damage

  Political Science Professor William Adler warns that while Trump may be on his way out, the period between election and inauguration will be dangerous--think about Buchanan-Lincoln or Hoover-FDR for instance.

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• SOURCE: The Conversation
  11/4/2020
  

  An Embarrassing Failure for Election Pollsters

  by W. Joseph Campbell

  Pollsters problems predicting the 2020 election deepened the embarrassment for a field that has suffered through – but has survived – a variety of lapses and surprises since the mid-1930s. 

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• SOURCE: NPR
  11/2/2020
  

  How To Lose An Election: A Brief History Of The Presidential Concession Speech

  Ultimately, the concession isn't about the losing candidate accepting the loss, it's about their supporters accepting it.

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• 11/1/2020
  

  Alexis de Tocqueville on the Dangers of Presidential Elections

  by Kevin M. Cherry

  The degree of anger, anxiety and agitation accompanying the presidential campaigns are signs we've failed to heed some important insights from a key observer of American democracy.

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• SOURCE: TIME
  10/26/2020
  

  Not Every U.S. Presidential Race Has Been Decided on Election Day. Here’s What to Know About America’s History of Contested Elections

  by Olivia B. Waxman

  “The Constitution does not tell you what should happen if there are disputed returns in a presidential election,” says Eric Foner. “We are in uncharted waters if disputes arise as to who carried a state.”

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• SOURCE: WGBH
  10/26/2020
  

  To Understand The Spectacle Of Presidential Debates, Look Back To 1960, Says Harvard Historian

  Fred Logevall, author of a new JFK biography, discusses the 1960 presidential debates between Kennedy and Nixon.