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" I've been writing big stories of history, but there are a lot of fascinating little stories. "
H. W. Brands
Stories
Writing
Little
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" Previous candidates who get elected are almost always sobered by the office and the responsibility they take on. Donald Trump shows no evidence of that. He's the same Trump that he was when he was host of his reality TV show. He's the same Trump that he was when he was a candidate. "
H. W. Brands
Reality
Evidence
Show
" Presidents have to decide what their popularity is for. Lyndon Johnson probably understood best that political popularity is a wasting asset. You had to use it when you had it. "
H. W. Brands
You
Asset
Best
" Harry Truman's decision to fire Douglas MacArthur at the height of the Korean War in April 1951 shocked the American political system and astonished the world. Much of the world didn't realize the president had the power to fire a five-star general; much of America didn't realize Truman had the nerve. "
H. W. Brands
World
War
Decision
" America can change its presidents, but the world doesn't change. "
H. W. Brands
America
World
Presidents
" I read in all forms: paper, computer, phone, audio. "
H. W. Brands
Paper
Phone
Read
" It's not an exaggeration to say that Texas gets a lot more out of being part of the United States than the United States gets out of having Texas as one of the states. "
H. W. Brands
Say
United States
Out
" There is a certain kind of sobering, civilizing effect that being president imposes on people. There is a certain kind of dignity with which you comport yourself. As an observer of the presidency, I have to wonder if Trump would follow that pattern. "
H. W. Brands
Dignity
People
Wonder
" Our love for the Founders leads us to abandon, and even to betray, the very principles they fought for. "
H. W. Brands
Abandon
Us
Our Love
" 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
" I had long known the story of Aaron Burr, but when I heard about his remarkable daughter, Theodosia, about the relationship between the two and about her tragic disappearance, I knew I wanted to tell their story. "
H. W. Brands
Daughter
Two
Story
" In some ways, I would be absolutely fascinated if Trump gets elected. "
H. W. Brands
Trump
Some
Absolutely
" 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
" 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
" Booker Washington was branded an accommodationist by many of the people who criticized him. "
H. W. Brands
Who
Washington
People
" If the incumbent or his party has been discredited sufficiently, the challenger can run a successful, content-free campaign. "
H. W. Brands
Run
Been
Campaign
" 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
" 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
" 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
Congress
Pen
Persuade
" The Republican Party has moved substantially to the right of where Reagan was. "
H. W. Brands
Party
Right
Reagan
" 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 candidate who promises the most has the best chance of winning. "
H. W. Brands
Best
Winning
Promises
" Americans knock themselves out, especially since 9/11, praising the military. "
H. W. Brands
Since
Military
Knock
" By the early 1960s, there was a moral consensus on what needed to be done on civil rights. "
H. W. Brands
Rights
Early
Moral
" 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
" People are interested in people. They buy biographies; they don't buy studies of presidencies. "
H. W. Brands
Interested
People
Buy
" Love makes the most careful man wreckless. "
H. W. Brands
Most
Man
Makes
" Once you become president, you don't even have to stop for red lights. And if it looks like traffic's too bad, you just take a helicopter. "
H. W. Brands
Bad
You
Traffic
" When the Constitution was written in 1787, there was this supposition that American politics would be above party. The people who would staff the positions in government would have the interests of the country, or at least their states and congressional districts, at heart, and so they wouldn't form permanent political parties. "
H. W. Brands
Heart
Politics
Government
" 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
Revolution
History
Story
" 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
World
Past
History