H. W. Brands
H. W. Brands

Reagan's enduring value as a conservative icon stems from his resolute preaching of the conservative gospel, in words that still warm the hearts of the most zealous conservatives. Yet Reagan's value as a conservative model must begin with recognition of his flexibility in the pursuit of his conservative goals.

H. W. Brands
H. W. Brands

The more of my readers I encounter who say, often apologetically, that they are actually listeners, the more I write for the ear rather than the eye. Small things like identifying speakers in dialogue rather than relying on paragraphing to mark the shifts.

H. W. Brands
H. W. Brands

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
H. W. Brands

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
H. W. Brands

Booker Washington was essentially the head Republican boss in the South. He was a power broker.

H. W. Brands
H. W. Brands

I'm often asked, 'Why didn't Benjamin Franklin ever become president?' My short, easy answer is: He died.

H. W. Brands
H. W. Brands

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
H. W. Brands

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
H. W. Brands

The race question in America has often been about race, but it has equally often been about power.

H. W. Brands
H. W. Brands

Reagan is the subject of ongoing political debate, and a lot of liberals don't want to take Reagan any more seriously than they did when he was president. I understand why they don't, but they should.

H. W. Brands
H. W. Brands

There has always been interest in certain phases and aspects of history - military history is a perennial bestseller, the Civil War, that sort of thing. But I think that there is a lot of interest in historical biography and what's generally called narrative history: history as story-telling.

H. W. Brands
H. W. Brands

Although this should not be so, historians reconsider presidencies based on how the presidents conduct themselves after leaving office.

H. W. Brands
H. W. Brands

The president of the United States from the 1940s until 2017 was considered the leader of the free world - probably the most powerful person in the world - not simply in terms of America's military might but in terms of the moral authority of the president. Donald Trump has largely abdicated that.

H. W. Brands
H. W. Brands

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
H. W. Brands

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
H. W. Brands

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
H. W. Brands

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
H. W. Brands

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
H. W. Brands

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
H. W. Brands

The American political system is based on the president taking the initiative and Congress responding. With President Trump, it's been the opposite.