Michael Beschloss

It is not always a treat to grow up as the heir to a world-famous leader.

— Michael Beschloss

You really do live through someone's life when you hear him six hours a day.

— Michael Beschloss

Legacy is what a president does that affects later generations.

— Michael Beschloss

Presidents fall into second-term slumps for different reasons.

— Michael Beschloss

Historians often find important decisions few knew were important at the time.

— Michael Beschloss

You have to raise $100 million, probably, to be serious.

— Michael Beschloss

The things we obsess about today, in 40 years seem trivial.

— Michael Beschloss

The Founders deliberately limited presidential authority.

— Michael Beschloss

Not to be pompous about it - my thing in life is to write history and not to chat on TV 24…

— Michael Beschloss

The Founding Fathers would be sorry to see that America had become so divided and factionalized.

— Michael Beschloss

Anyone who writes anything on any subject is standing on the shoulders of 900 people who've come before you.

— Michael Beschloss

I'm one of those people who lies awake all night and worries about all the horrible things that can go wrong, whether…

— Michael Beschloss

We [the United States] are the world's only superpower right now, so everyone notices every bit of what we do or don't…

— Michael Beschloss

You don't say that for a senator to be a great senator he has to vote against his constituency.

— Michael Beschloss

More than Nixon or any other 20th-century president, Clinton has devoted his life to winning and keeping the presidency.

— Michael Beschloss

From the beginning of the presidential nominating conventions in the 1830's really through the 1950's, you had conventions that actually did real…

— Michael Beschloss

As parties began to develop around the turn of the 19th century, you had party nominees for President nominated in caucuses made…

— Michael Beschloss

The more successful sons and daughters know when to lean on their parents - and when to go their own way. George…

— Michael Beschloss

I'm defining [presidential courage] pretty narrowly. It's not only taking a big political risk but it's also the risk that in the…

— Michael Beschloss

Reagan's defense buildup and SDI, so ridiculed at the time, pressed Gorbachev, while his economy was collapsing, to make arms deals and…

— Michael Beschloss

First of all, there's no mention of political parties in the Constitution, so you begin American history with not only no political…

— Michael Beschloss

So if 1960 had occurred under the old convention system, Kennedy would have had a very hard time getting the Democratic nomination…

— Michael Beschloss

The original thing that fascinated me most was why we expect leaders, and especially presidents, at times to destroy themselves - and…

— Michael Beschloss

Kings and queens are expected to have offspring to carry on the name. There are no such demands on American presidents, but…

— Michael Beschloss

A lot of it was, you know, you look for moments where, for instance, we were dependent on Abraham Lincoln making sure…

— Michael Beschloss

There is a great overlap of tragedy that played out through the generations of the Lincolns. That, coupled with the idea that…

— Michael Beschloss

As you look back in history, we [the United States] have done wonderful things, the Marshal Plan is the most obvious. After…

— Michael Beschloss

Lincoln was able to say, you know, "It will make me very unhappy if I lose the presidency, but I'm committed to…

— Michael Beschloss

What if we had a culture that prevented these presidents from being courageous? And I worry now that we have a system…

— Michael Beschloss

Troubled celebrities are a dime a dozen.

— Michael Beschloss

To people who remember JFK's assassination, JFK Jr. will probably always be that boy saluting his father's coffin.

— Michael Beschloss

Roosevelt understands that there are things that are worth surrendering your career for, like defending the country against [Adolf] Hitler.

— Michael Beschloss

Historians sometimes view presidents very differently from the way the public did at the time. Sometimes they don't.

— Michael Beschloss

You have had presidential candidates over the last 30 years who would have had a very hard time getting nominated under the…

— Michael Beschloss

Too few presidents have steeped themselves not just in Lincoln's words but his deeds, which is why Obama's acquaintance with the great…

— Michael Beschloss

We cannot be spun, or at least we'd like to think that we cannot be. And the presidents who are trying to…

— Michael Beschloss

Then you get to the last half of the 20th century, Americans are getting very skeptical about their leaders and their institutions,…

— Michael Beschloss

Under the system that we now have to nominate presidential candidates, for instance, I would prefer that we have a system that…

— Michael Beschloss

Oftentimes during the period in which conventions really did business, you had situations where the delegates were divided and you would have…

— Michael Beschloss

Mrs. Johnson was one of our most important First Ladies. Quietly but firmly, she advised LBJ on rhetoric, strategy, and personal relations…

— Michael Beschloss