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" 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
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" 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
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" 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
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" Booker Washington was branded an accommodationist by many of the people who criticized him. "
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" 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
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United States
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" When a president was elected with foreign policy experience, it was usually less about his foreign policy experience than other things. "
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Foreign Policy
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" He used humor more effectively than any president since Abraham Lincoln. Reagan was not an especially warm person, but he appeared to be. Many people disliked his policies, but almost no one disliked him. "
H. W. Brands
People
Humor
Him
" Booker Washington was essentially the head Republican boss in the South. He was a power broker. "
H. W. Brands
Republican
Power
He
" For Andrew Jackson, politics was very personal. He hated not just the federal debt. He hated debt at all. "
H. W. Brands
Debt
Politics
Hated
" Reagan refused to demonize his foes. Instead he charmed them, with a few exceptions, including Tip O'Neill, the Democratic Speaker of the House and the embodiment of the liberalism Reagan sought to reverse. "
H. W. Brands
Democratic
Tip
House
" 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 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
" 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
" Although this should not be so, historians reconsider presidencies based on how the presidents conduct themselves after leaving office. "
H. W. Brands
Should
Office
How
" In modern times, the American military has become more bureaucratised. "
H. W. Brands
Modern
More
American
" 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
" With my students, I always have to sell my subject because I know when you're 19, 20 years old, you've got other things on your mind besides American history. What I have to do is make this as compelling as possible. "
H. W. Brands
History
You
American
" America can change its presidents, but the world doesn't change. "
H. W. Brands
America
World
Presidents
" Most presidents have not considered 100 days a significant milepost. "
H. W. Brands
Considered
Days
Most
" When you're actually president, the spin matters a lot less. "
H. W. Brands
President
Spin
Less
" 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
" The Tea Party loves Reagan because he said exactly what they want to hear. "
H. W. Brands
Party
Want
Because
" It's hard to say that Trump actually has a health care policy. "
H. W. Brands
Trump
Say
Care
" On style points alone, Donald Trump makes GWB look magnificently presidential. "
H. W. Brands
Alone
Style
Makes
" 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
Want
" Reagan conspired in the underestimation of his own ability. "
H. W. Brands
Ability
His
Reagan
" Love makes the most careful man wreckless. "
H. W. Brands
Most
Man
Makes
" 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
" The shelf life of a seventh-year State of the Union address is about five minutes. Presidents can propose stuff. They're probably not likely to get it done. "
H. W. Brands
Minutes
Stuff
Union
" I've probably written some books - I know I've written some books that were more interesting to me than to a large audience, but that was mostly when I was first getting started in academia and writing for a narrow audience. "
H. W. Brands
Know
Audience
Interesting
" 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