I've been writing big stories of history, but there are a lot of fascinating little stories. — H. W. Brands Copy Share Image
Although this should not be so, historians reconsider presidencies based on how the presidents conduct themselves after leaving office. — H. W. Brands Copy Share Image
The historic dearth of labor was perhaps the central feature of the American economy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. — H. W. Brands Copy Share Image
There has always been interest in certain phases and aspects of history - military history is a perennial bestseller, the Civil War,… — H. W. Brands Copy Share Image
With my students, I always have to sell my subject because I know when you're 19, 20 years old, you've got other… — H. W. Brands Copy Share Image
Some years ago, I read Thomas Carlyle's history of the French Revolution, and I was very taken by the way he told… — H. W. Brands Copy Share Image
Every year, I have my graduate students read the great works of history, from classical times to the present. They gamely tackle… — H. W. Brands Copy Share Image
In the academic world, biographies of these great figures of the past fell out of favor in the 1960s, when there was… — H. W. Brands Copy Share Image
People who teach American history survey classes have a lot of ground to cover and tend to focus on landmarks. You get… — H. W. Brands Copy Share Image
I had this grand plan for writing the history of the United States in six volumes. This was in the mid-1990s; I… — H. W. Brands Copy Share Image
Politics is not something most people have to do every day. Their daily lives are much more influenced by job opportunities, whether… — H. W. Brands Copy Share Image
I've been writing American history for a long time, and I've had a hard time finding strong, interesting female characters. There are… — H. W. Brands Copy Share Image
Every work of history is a combination of argument and narrative. The longer I write, the more I emphasize the narrative, the… — H. W. Brands Copy Share Image
I certainly don't think that the heirs of the American Revolution were a particularly noble class. — H. W. Brands Copy Share Image
The Republican Party has moved substantially to the right of where Reagan was. — H. W. Brands Copy Share Image
Reagan gave essentially the same speech from the beginning to the end of his political career, which was always, 'The American people are great,… — H. W. Brands Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
In the business arena, the standard rules of morality don't apply. What we're really looking for is efficiency. It doesn't do anyone any good… — H. W. Brands Copy Share Image
There is a certain kind of sobering, civilizing effect that being president imposes on people. There is a certain kind of dignity with which… — H. W. Brands Copy Share Image
The Founders were anything but demigods to themselves and their contemporaries, who recognized full well that the experiment in self-government had only begun. — H. W. Brands Copy Share Image
The American political system is based on the president taking the initiative and Congress responding. With President Trump, it's been the opposite. — H. W. Brands Copy Share Image
The president was not the most important political player in the 19th century. Besides Jefferson at the beginning, Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln, the… — H. W. Brands Copy Share Image
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… — H. W. Brands Copy Share Image
When you look at the development of the American presidency, you see that the presidents who have had the greatest impact are the ones… — H. W. Brands Copy Share Image
