49 H. W. Brands Quotes for You to Enjoy

People World Election Country President Presidential States Those Potentially Could Writes Feel Like How Off Person Candidate Stake Then Unifying Figure Who Basically

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

Great History World Past White Favor Abandoned Out Embraced Faceless Guys Voiceless Never Idea Toward Academic Fell Dead The History Of Which Public Social Turn Should Meant Figures Large Biographies

When you're actually president, the spin matters a lot less. H. W. Brands

You Matters President Spin Lot Less Actually

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

Own Congress Pen Presidents Stroke Did Persuade

America can change its presidents, but the world doesn't change. H. W. Brands

Change World Presidents America

I had this grand plan for writing the history of the United States in six volumes. This was in the mid-1990s; I was fairly young and very ambitious. I pitched it to a publisher, who just laughed at me. H. W. Brands

People are interested in people. They buy biographies; they don't buy studies of presidencies. H. W. Brands

Buy People Studies Interested Biographies

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

Great History Year Down Every Thomas Plow Classical Tackle Touched Through Students Feel Like She Read Times Get Graduate Graduate Students Oz Dorothy Ponder Then Works Present

With my first few books, I was aiming at an academic audience, basically, to get tenure. You can presuppose a certain amount of knowledge; you can expect that there is this common background. H. W. Brands

Knowledge You First Few Aiming Books Background Tenure Academic Audience Expect Get Common Certain Amount Basically

When you tell a story, there are imperatives of structure, of style, of pacing and all of this, that are there simply because you want to make it a good story. When do you introduce your characters? When do you put them onstage, when do you take them off the stage? How do you weave the different threads of the narrative together? H. W. Brands

Good You Together Style Stage Tell Characters Introduce Threads Weave Structure Imperative Good Story Onstage Take Put Simply Make Because Narrative How Off Different Want Story Pacing Them Your

Reagan gave essentially the same speech from the beginning to the end of his political career, which was always, 'The American people are great, the government always screws things up, let's get the government out of the way.' On the foreign policy side it was, 'Communism is bad, and we're going to defeat it.' H. W. Brands

Government Great Communism People Political Beginning Defeat Gave Side Way Out Bad Policy Always Foreign Reagan Political Career Foreign Policy His End Up Get American Same Going Essentially Which American People Things Career Speech

I've been writing American history for a long time, and I've had a hard time finding strong, interesting female characters. There are women, of course, in American history, but they're hard to write about because they don't leave much of a historical trace, and they're not usually involved in high-profile public events. H. W. Brands

Time History Women Writing Events Strong Long Long Time Characters Finding About High-Profile Write Had Involved Trace Course Because Female Female Characters Leave Been Historical American American History Interesting Public Much Hard Hard Time

Some years ago, I read Thomas Carlyle's history of the French Revolution, and I was very taken by the way he told the story, and it seemed as though I was right in the middle of things. And it took me a while to figure out how he achieved that effect, and one of the ways was to write it in the present tense. H. W. Brands

Me History Revolution Thomas Took Way Ways Though Out Some Seemed Write He Taken Tense French Read French Revolution How Years Years Ago Effect Very Achieved Middle Story While Figure Right Things Present Present Tense

I've been writing big stories of history, but there are a lot of fascinating little stories. H. W. Brands

History Writing Big Been Lot Stories Little Fascinating

H. W. Brands Quotes

No more H. W. Brands quotes