David is the author of a number of books and he is here to talk about some of the past. His book about arnold rothstein, has book about 1920 the year of six president s, 1960 lbj versus jfk versus nixon, and ted silent cows almanac, the wit and wisdom of calvin coolidge, and ted williams my life of pictures. He has also written and produced a wma hq documentary local heroes, baseball and Capital District diamonds. Reviews for his harry truman lively itabout how is, illuminating portraits of candidate, and the evenhanded appraisal of truman is especially compelling. The journey he takes to election day is one he has definitively become the best at leading. His work has been compared to theodore whites classic them a of the president s series. After three homeruns, i think pietrusza is the undisputed champion of chronicling americans president ial campaigns. He holds a masters degree in history the university at albany and has served on city council in amsterdam new york and is the , rec
Factors that are considered when we look at president ial effectiveness. The second part id like to look at a few of the more recent president ial elections. We are going to start with this and i am calling on the work of professor robert. A wellknown president ial historian. He writes, the 20th century sought an unprecedented expansion of president ial powers. Primarily due to the division and leadership skills. Nine men who served in the office. Theodore roosevelt, woodrow wilson, Franklin Delano roosevelt, harry truman, dwight eisenhower, john f. Kennedy, lyndon bains johnson, Richard Nixon and ronald reagan. Now professor deluxe analysis only looks at the 20th century. Im going to throw in some of the president s from the 21st century as we go along. If we can go to the first slide. Professor dally talks about the six points. The first one he says is his vision. Then the second second is charisma third is pragmatism. The fourth is consensus building followed by trust their credibil
Event with Nicholson Baker, joining the conversation by christopher. Thank you for joining us tonight. Harvard bookstore continues to bring authors to our community and new digital community. As always, our events scheduled also appears on our website at harvard. Com events where you can sign up for email news letter. This evenings discussion will conclude with questions and if you have any questions, click on q a bottom. In the chat i will be posting a link to purchase and donate and support series in the store. Your purchases an contributions make tonight possible. Thank you so much for showing up and tuning in support of authors at Harvard Bookstore. We appreciate your support now and always. As you may have experienced in virtual gatherings the last few weeks, months, technical issues may arise. [laughter] if they do, we will do our best to resolve them quickly and we thank you for your patience and understanding. And now im so pleased to introduce tonights speakers, Nicholson Bake
Welcome to the Commonwealth Club, im george hammond, chair of the forum which organized todays events. Im happy to welcome back a. J. Baime who was here a year and half or so ago and his last book in this time we have him here virtually from his home and we will talk about his new book the 1948 election so we are going back 72 years for another Election Year and youll be amazed at exactly how similar it sounds in some ways and in other ways very different and one of the difference is the politicians were younger then so that is one big difference but a. J. , take it away and tell us about the overview of the book, a very good read by the way. Thank you. I want to say a couple of things first. Thank you so much for having me and the Commonwealth Club is a wonderful place to be and here we are going through painandsuffering and i know for myself im just reminding why i fell in love with reading when i was six years old because books can transform or transport you to another time and plac
Test. Test test test test test test test test test test test test test test. Doug brinkley, if i could, what about criticism of Eleanor Roosevelt and throughout her 12 years as first lady . Were people critical of her . Weve kind of had a little bit of a love affair so far tonight. Of course, they were, because people didnt like fdr. A very polarizing president. He killed the opposition in 30 and 32 and i promise you eleanor was not an albatross. As i mentioned before, she was a huge asset. With that said, i think some thought her issue of pushing the labor unions and supporting the coal miners. If you were a coal owner, you would not have liked it. In the south, as i mentioned, the africanamerican issue was very controversial. In fact, theres one letter she wrote to an africanamerican person in chicago, the person wrote her because one of her columns, she called black people and this africanamerican rightly said how can you who is helping africanamericans use the word dark, and she sa