1897 quotes by historians for you to enjoy

Why was Barack Obama attractive to people in 2008? If you think about Barack Obama, there's all this anxiety about society, just kind of wracked by centripetal forces - the idea that the center's not holding, no one can talk to each other, the idea of a political system that's broken. Rick Perlstein

Broken You People Anxiety Political Holding Think Society Other System Kind Obama About No-One Idea Talk Attractive Forces Political System Just Just Kind Center Barack Barack Obama Each Why

My big subject as a historian is how Americans divide themselves. What are the divisions that structure our political lives. Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan were perfect foils for that story. Rick Perlstein

The reason inflation was brought down to manageable levels, by the time of Ronald Reagan's re-election, was directly attributable to Jimmy Carter's very courageous act, hiring a Federal Reserve chair, with the charge to induce a recession. That recession was probably the reason he didn't win a second term. Rick Perlstein

Time Win Inflation Down Recession Jimmy Charge Carter Brought Directly Federal Federal Reserve He Term Re-Election Induce Attributable Courageous Reagan Hiring Very Manageable Act Reason Chair Reserve Second Levels Second Term By The Time

Do people still read before bed? I play 'Words With Friends.' Rick Perlstein

People Words Before Read Bed Still Friends Play

I don't read many popular histories like the ones I write. The building blocks for my research are scholarly monographs, and the inspiration for my storytelling style are folks like Chekhov. Rick Perlstein

Building Style Research Folks Inspiration Write Scholarly Like Read Chekhov Building Blocks Blocks Histories Storytelling Many Popular

I look to historians for their power to illuminate not just the invisible lineaments of the present, but also that which is not present. What are the roads that were not taken that most shape our own time? Rick Perlstein

Time Power Own Our Shape Taken Roads Invisible Look Most Also Were Historians Just Which Illuminate Present

My liberal friends love to dismiss Reagan. You know, they'll say something like, 'Oh, didn't he, like, only read one-page memos when he was in the White House?' Well, that's just good managerial practice. I mean, Franklin Roosevelt made people write one-page memos. Rick Perlstein

Love Good You People Made Practice White White House Liberal Say Franklin Franklin Roosevelt Something Only Write He Like Know House Well Read Reagan Friends Managerial Oh Just Mean Roosevelt Dismiss

Leaders are for calling people to their better angels, for helping guide them to a kind of sterner, more mature sense of what we need to do. To me, Reagan's brand of leadership was what I call 'a liturgy of absolution.' He absolved Americans almost in a priestly role to contend with sin. Who wouldn't want that? Rick Perlstein

Leadership Me People Better Sense Guide Kind Angels More Absolution He Priestly Leaders Almost Sin Call Calling Contend Reagan Brand Mature Role American Want Them Liturgy Who Helping Need

Watergate got us to think of leaders as mere mortals. America began to think of itself in a very different way - I would say a salutary way - and Reagan was most important in shifting the grand dynamic thrust of the American historical process by ending that. Rick Perlstein

Watergate Ending Important Shifting Think Way Say Would Thrust Leaders Mere Mortals Most Got Reagan Historical Began Itself Very Salutary America American Different Dynamic Process Grand Us Different Way

America was founded on the fissure between slave states and free states, so these huge fault lines are just built into the American project. How we repress them, express them, deal with them, talk around them, think through them, don't think through them, is fascinating to me. Rick Perlstein

Me Fault Free Think Project States Through Between Talk Around Deal Built How Lines Huge America American Just Repress Them Fascinating Express Founded Slave

There's a certain kind of cultural energy pursued by the gatekeepers of elite discourse, who want to argue that Americans fundamentally agree with each other, and that's the health of the nation. Rick Perlstein

Health Nation Energy Other Kind Pursued Argue Discourse Cultural American Want Certain Who Agree Each Fundamentally Elite Gatekeepers

Everyone is a reactionary about subjects he understands. Robert Conquest

Everyone About He Reactionary Understands Subjects

Truman is now seen as a near-great president because he put in place the containment doctrine boosted by the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan and NATO, which historians now see as having been at the center of American success in the cold war. Robert Dallek

Success War Seen NATO Cold Cold War President See Marshall Marshall Plan Having He Put Doctrine Because Been Truman Historians American Center Place Which Plan Now

What I find so interesting is, Herbert Hoover in August 1928 said no country in the world was closer to abolishing poverty than the United States. And then, of course, we had the Great Depression. Robert Dallek

Depression Great World Poverty Country Great Depression States Hoover Find No Country Abolish Had Course Said August Than Closer Interesting Then United United States Herbert Herbert Hoover

Theodore Roosevelt had drawn public attention to his attractive family in order to create a bond with ordinary Americans. Eleanor Roosevelt had successfully broached the idea that a First Lady could be nearly as much a public figure as her husband. Robert Dallek

Family Husband First First Lady Drawn Could Had Attention Idea Attractive His American Lady Order Ordinary Public Eleanor Roosevelt Public Figure Roosevelt Create Much Theodore Theodore Roosevelt Successfully Figure Her Nearly Bond

When President Obama first unveiled his gun control proposals recommending a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and better background checks, there seemed to be momentum behind the effort. But then the proposals ran into a wall. Robert Dallek

Better Gun Gun Control First Control President President Obama Ran Background Obama Weapons Magazines Seemed Proposals Checks Unveiled His Ban Effort Wall Behind Then Assault Momentum

Nixon's deep antipathy toward Jews is well known, and he took a strange satisfaction in having Kissinger in his inner circle, where he could periodically taunt him. Robert Dallek

As someone who has more than a passing acquaintance with most of the 20th century presidents, I have often thought that their accomplishments have little staying power in shaping popular views of their leadership. Robert Dallek

What did in the Soviet Union was the Soviet Union. Robert Dallek

Did Soviet Soviet Union Union

During Grover Cleveland's second term, in the 1890s, the White House deceived the public by dismissing allegations that surgeons had removed a cancerous growth from the President's mouth; a vulcanized-rubber prosthesis disguised the absence of much of Cleveland's upper left jaw and part of his palate. Robert Dallek

Mouth Deceived White White House President Allegations Absence Had Part Term House Cleveland His Left Upper Disguised Public Much Jaw Palate Growth Second Second Term

Once the public loses confidence in a president's leadership at a time of war, once they don't trust him anymore, once his credibility is sharply diminished, how does he get it back? Robert Dallek

Congress becomes the public voice of opposition. Robert Dallek

Congress Voice Becomes Opposition Public

There are limits on what a president can achieve or do, but the expectations are so great. Robert Dallek

Great Achieve President Limits Expectations

Quotes by Historians