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" I'm the farthest thing from a bibliophile. I purge my collection regularly: If I haven't read a book in a couple of years, I try to give it to someone who will. "
H. W. Brands
Try
Someone
Purge
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" In the early days of the republic, the secretary of state was the heir apparent to the president. Presidents could easily hand-pick their party's next candidate. The party caucuses formally selected the candidates, but presidents guided the process. "
H. W. Brands
Republic
Early
Days
" The race question in America has often been about race, but it has equally often been about power. "
H. W. Brands
Been
Race
Question
" I'm trying to tell the story of the evolution of America. Each biography is a life in time, and I can see there's a particular task for each generation that I write about. "
H. W. Brands
Generation
Life
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" I never admit to wishing I'd written something by another author, but if my name mysteriously appeared on the title page of 'The Guns of August,' I wouldn't complain. "
H. W. Brands
Guns
Complain
Page
" If it's a good story, it's a good story, and it draws readers in. "
H. W. Brands
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" 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
Beginning
People
Great
" People who teach American history survey classes have a lot of ground to cover and tend to focus on landmarks. You get through the Civil War and Reconstruction, and you have to get to the beginning of the 20th century fast. It's pretty easy to go lightly on the Gilded Age. "
H. W. Brands
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You
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" Even when candidates have degrees from Harvard and Yale, they try to run as the candidate of the common man. "
H. W. Brands
Yale
Run
Common
" When a president doesn't know the policy, it doesn't make for a very effective leader. "
H. W. Brands
Leader
Make
Policy
" I'm more inclined to say the presidency has changed Trump rather than Trump changed the presidency. He has moderated or reversed himself on most of the positions he took as a candidate. Reality has set in, as it does with every new president. "
H. W. Brands
More
New
President
" The stories that I tell, the topics that I choose to write about, usually are suggested by something that I've done before. "
H. W. Brands
Choose
Done
Tell
" President Obama ran a campaign in 2008 that was entirely expected from a non-incumbent. You promise, and you imply that if you elect me, everything good is going to happen. "
H. W. Brands
Happen
Me
Everything
" A lot of people were ambivalent about Vietnam. Lyndon Johnson in 1964 positioned himself as the peace candidate. Once Johnson sent large amounts of troops into battle in 1965, most Americans were behind the war. "
H. W. Brands
War
Battle
Behind
" Members of Congress are somewhat reluctant to tangle with a president who seems to have the backing of the American people. "
H. W. Brands
Congress
American
President
" I'm often asked, 'Why didn't Benjamin Franklin ever become president?' My short, easy answer is: He died. "
H. W. Brands
Become
Easy
President
" When a president was elected with foreign policy experience, it was usually less about his foreign policy experience than other things. "
H. W. Brands
Experience
Foreign Policy
Less
" The historic dearth of labor was perhaps the central feature of the American economy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. "
H. W. Brands
Perhaps
Labor
Economy
" The Tea Party loves Reagan because he said exactly what they want to hear. "
H. W. Brands
Party
Want
Because
" 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
Down
Present
History
" Theodore Roosevelt, when he was out of office, he would do things to draw attention. But when you are president, you don't need to shout. When you are in office, you are the story. "
H. W. Brands
Need
Office
Story
" On style points alone, Donald Trump makes GWB look magnificently presidential. "
H. W. Brands
Alone
Style
Makes
" Love makes the most careful man wreckless. "
H. W. Brands
Most
Man
Makes
" The president was not the most important political player in the 19th century. Besides Jefferson at the beginning, Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln, the center of politics was Congress. "
H. W. Brands
Congress
Beginning
Political
" A president can start a war under relatively specious circumstances, and once American soldiers are under fire, Americans will support the soldiers and support the president. "
H. W. Brands
Fire
War
Support
" In revering the Founders, we undervalue ourselves and sabotage our own efforts to make improvements - necessary improvements - in the republican experiment they began. "
H. W. Brands
Republican
Own
Necessary
" If you put on the military uniform, you're a prima facie hero. Generals are the epitome of that. They're the ones who have been most successful at the soldier's trade. "
H. W. Brands
You
Soldier
Successful
" When you look at the development of the American presidency, you see that the presidents who have had the greatest impact are the ones who fit their times most successfully. "
H. W. Brands
Impact
Look
American
" You might say presidents are drafting the first chapter of their memoirs in these seventh-year State of the Union addresses. They're trying to get the public and the media to think about their presidencies in the way that they would like to have them thought of. "
H. W. Brands
Say
Think
Thought
" The president is the one person who potentially could be the unifying figure in the country. And if the president or a presidential candidate basically writes off 40 states, then how in the world do the people in those 40 states feel like they have a stake in that person or that election? "
H. W. Brands
People
World
Feel
" The Republican Party has moved substantially to the right of where Reagan was. "
H. W. Brands
Party
Right
Reagan