A User's Guide to History

What’s a prez to do? The wars of George W. Bush

“To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.” The line from Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of…

May 15 •

H. W. Brands

What’s a prez to do? Clinton and Monica Lewinsky

It's not known how many presidents had extramarital affairs while in the White House. It's not even clear what should count as an extramarital affair…

May 13 •

H. W. Brands

What Eleanor might have said

Eleanor Roosevelt said you can't be humiliated without your consent. At least I thought she did until I tried to track the quote down. I couldn't find…

May 10 •

H. W. Brands

What's a prez to do? Bush and the budget

We all say things we later regret. But few of us do so on a national stage in front of a television audience of tens of millions of people, in memorable…

May 9 •

H. W. Brands

What’s a prez to do? Reagan and PATCO

Ronald Reagan liked to boast that he was the only union president to be elected president of the United States. In fact, he was the only union member to…

May 6 •

H. W. Brands

Foreign wars and domestic disturbances

Last fall I published a book called Founding Partisans, on the emergence of party politics in the United States in the 1780s and 1790s. The book went to…

May 3 •

H. W. Brands

The climate problem

Is maybe not what you think

May 1 •

Apr 29 •

A User's Guide to History

Everybody uses history, some better than others. This User's Guide offers suggestions on how the past shapes the present, and how the present shapes what we think about the past.

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