January 2012
emotionally-stable asked: Hello once again! This might be a strange question, but I saw pictures of President Harding's funeral and started to wonder, so here goes: If a president we have a lower esteem of had been assassinated at the time of their presidency, would their legacy change ? Examples such as Jimmy Carter, Taft or Pierce, let's say... Part two: People "liked" Kennedy, so would he still be as...
tiedtothewhippingpost asked: Piggybacking off that Bush question, do you think that 9/11 defined the early 2000s for America. That decade.
kaiyves asked: You've said that you like Reagan's Challenger speech a few times, and I agree that it's very well-written. What do you think of Bush's speech after the Columbia disaster?
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REVIEW: "Mr. Adams's Last Crusade" by Joseph...
Mr. Adams’s Last Crusade: John Quincy Adams’s Extraordinary Post-Presidential Life in Congress Joseph Wheelan Paperback. 309 pp. 2008. PublicAffairs.
On March 4, 1829, John Quincy Adams, 6th President of the United States, skipped the inauguration of his successor and prepared for what he imagined would be a quiet and private retirement. For nearly 50 years, Adams had served his...
Anonymous asked: do you think that George W. Bush would have done a better job if 9/11 never happened during his presidency?
Anonymous asked: I apologize if you've already answered something like this, but what is your opinion on the US being a so-called world police? Do you think that it is a good policy to be like that, or that it is harmful? I think that it is bad to close ourselves off to the world, but instead of being an enforcer, who fights, we should be a helper, who aids, so to speak. What do you think?
ttuck asked: Are presidential inaugurations on set dates or was Reagan just a genius by placing it on the same day as the super bowl?
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Overrated Radio, Episode V
Freshly recorded,...
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AND Magazine: "The Pirates of Somalia" Review →
I’ve got a host of new book reviews on the horizon, beginning with this one of The Pirates of Somalia. Some of them will be published exclusively in AND Magazine and I’ll link them here, but I’ll post the full reviews of books about Presidents here as well as in AND.
The Pirates of Somalia: Inside Their Hidden World by Jay Bahadur is available now from St. Martin’s...
tylershannon asked: how difficult would it be to privatize the mail industry? the USPS was established in the constitution, and therefore would need an amendment to privatize, i believe. Would that be difficult to pass? if you don't recommend running the mail industry as a business, wast would you recommend to try and fix it?
Anonymous asked: What is your earliest memory of a president?
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Anonymous asked: Please do a liveblog again like you did for the State Of The Union!!
Anonymous asked: What would LBJ think of "Blood, Money, and Power: How LBJ Killed JFK"? On a more positive note, what would he think of the book series "The Years of Lyndon Johnson"?
i1ana asked: John Tyler was born in 1790. He became the 10th president of the United States in 1841 after William Henry Harrison died in office. Tyler fathered Lyon Gardiner Tyler in 1853, at age 63. Then, at the age of 71, Lyon Gardiner Tyler fathered Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr. in 1924 and four years later at age 75, Harrison Ruffin Tyler. Both men are still alive today. (Thought that tidbit might be of some...
allididwaswhatihadto asked: Wait! Aren't you a Raiders fan? Don't get me wrong, I appreciate seeing Go Pats on my dashboard, but I'm pretty sure the Tuck Rule screwed the Raiders out of a possible Super Bowl title.
Also for my New England readers: Go Pats.
caseyleaks asked: For your New England readers, what are your thoughts on Bruins Goalie Tim Thomas skipping out on the White House visit due to his disapproval of the President?
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State of the Union Thoughts (BUILT TO LAST!)
I jotted down some thoughts while watching the President give the State of the Union speech (BUILT TO LAST!), sponsored by Masterlock and Siemens and apparently Ford (BUILT TO LAST! FORD TOUGH!). Let’s see if I can read my handwriting.
•I’ll admit it: the Gabby Giffords/Obama hug was a tear-jerker even for a tough (FORD TOUGH?) manly man like me. •There was a little bit of...
Searchable Diary of Rutherford B. Hayes →
I’ve mentioned how my days have recently been dominated by digging through the 12-volume, 70-year-long diaries of John Quincy Adams, but I also wanted to compare them with the diaries of James K. Polk and Rutherford B. Hayes, who are the only other pre-20th Century Presidents to keep diaries during their Administrations.
JQA’s diary is hard-to-read at many points and there is a lot of...
nhaler asked: I thought I read somewhere about the two-term limit being, in the technical sense, only informal and non-binding? It was somewhat recent, and made reference to FDR's multiple terms, but didn't seem to acknowledge Amendment XXII.
Anonymous asked: Have you ever answered questions while drunk?
lovetheinfatuation asked: Do you think there is any reason behind why all the presidents have been Christian? Do you think we will have a non-Christian president one day?
Anonymous asked: What do you think of Newt Gingrich's victory in the South Carolina primary?
Anonymous asked: Could Nixon technically have run for President again? I mean he didn't serve two full terms...
Anonymous asked: Do you think John Adams had much say in the early decisions and policies of President JQA? Or was he too old to really get involved/had no desire to?
spring-life asked: Are you going to post any more "Historically Accurate Transcriptions"? I loooved them :)
Anonymous asked: Has there ever been a non-Christian President?
philosophicalpuppy asked: What are some good history tumblogs to follow? I want something with facts, interesting people, and stories. Many history blogs are just pictures, which is not nearly as interesting (in my opinion).
jtownnn asked: Have you seen the trailer for a movie called "FDR: American Badass!"? It's fantastic.
Anonymous asked: I've seen a lot of people saying that Abraham Lincoln was actually one of the worst presidents we've ever had because of the Civil War. Do you agree with that at all?
Anonymous asked: have we ever had a ginger president?
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January 22, 1973: Triumph and Tragedy
At the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, a young man from Texas won a gold medal in heavyweight boxing while an old man from Texas proudly watched from the White House in Washington, D.C. As a teenager growing up in Houston’s rough Fifth Ward, George Foreman was spending his days and nights fighting in the streets and committing petty crimes. Foreman had little education, few role...
jphistory asked: Who do you think is going to win the superbowl? and on an unrelated note, Do you think Clinton could beat Obama, obviously if it was possible.
Anonymous asked: Was WW2 the only war where there was a clear good and bad side?
Anonymous asked: Who are your favorite cabinet members?
Anonymous asked: Are you or are you going to work for the Obama campaign again?
Anonymous asked: Do you ever watch any of the debates? Or are you to busy reading or whatever else you do?
Anonymous asked: What's the most "American" state? What's the least "American" state?
Anonymous asked: Since you're into Civil Rights: Was MLK a Republican? Because a lot of Black Republicans like to say that, and one of the Republican nomination wannabees said that MLK would be on his side.
Anonymous asked: Why do you always forget about Wallace when you talk about LBJ vs. Nixon in 1968?
wanttobelieve asked: Hello again! Another question. I'm reading a book about Garfield's presidency, and Roscoe Conkling was basically running the show. How could this happen? I know it wasn't just Garfield's presidency did this occur. Why and how did political machines run the presidency during this time period?
Anonymous asked: For the modern Presidents, can you list what genres of music they preferred? Anything odd? I know Clinton plays the sax, but I always imagined him banging out to some 80s hair metal while banging out on interns.
Elizabeth A. Cason: Update: Met the Neighbor →
elizabethacason:
from this post
Arriving home at midnight, tonight, I ran into a group on the sidewalk and was asked, “What kind of car do you drive?” Not being able to immediately decipher where this line of questioning was headed, I responded with a generic “Volvo.” They were crowded beside a taxi, so I…
I wish that I had stories as interesting as Elizabeth’s. I wish my writing...
Anonymous asked: so your birthday is inauguration day!? did a new president take office on the day you were born?
act-naturally asked: Happy birthday! (I know this because of FB but I'd rather say it on Tumblr.)
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Overrated Radio, Episode IV.
It’s a special...
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Any truth to the rumor that Obama busted out the...