A User's Guide to History

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What if Truman hadn’t used the bomb?
Would humanity be better off? Or extinct?
 • 
H. W. Brands
Ballad of the Presidents: Reagan to Trump
If Reagan had been a more talented actor He’d not have become a political factor But one thing he learned and remembered by heart: Success as a prez…
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H. W. Brands
3
Ballad of the Presidents: Kennedy to Carter
Kennedy stumbled first out of the blocks By heeding advice of the Washington hawks Giving approval to covert invasion Compounding folly with…
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H. W. Brands
Overrinsured?
Peace of mind doesn't come free
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H. W. Brands
Washington no Cincinnatus
He knew better
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H. W. Brands
Ballad of the Presidents: Truman and Eisenhower
Truman had doubts he was fit for the office One might have thought he would therefore be cautious Time, though, permitted no settling in With fate in…
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H. W. Brands
2
If Lincoln had let the secessionists go
Roads not taken
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H. W. Brands
3
Ballad of the Presidents: Harding to FDR
Of Warren G.
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H. W. Brands
1
25 for 25. Declining birthrates (2010s)
In the 18th century Benjamin Franklin quantified a defining characteristic of American life.
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H. W. Brands
2
Ballad of the Presidents: TR to Wilson
Theodore, Teddy or simply TR The youthful New Yorker uplifted the bar His sense of himself often blurred into parody He made of the prez a prestigious…
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H. W. Brands
25 for 25. The iPhone (2007)
Computers started big.
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H. W. Brands
2
Ships of stone, sails of lead
Revolution comes for America
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H. W. Brands
1
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